Defense lawyers for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara cross-examined a senior cult figure Thursday who stands accused of taking part in the 1989 murders of an anti-Aum lawyer and his family.
Kiyohide Hayakawa, 48, who was one of Asahara’s closest aides, testified in detail about how he and five other cultists killed Tsutsumi Sakamoto, the lawyer’s wife and 1-year-old son, and carried the bodies out of the Sakamoto’s condominium early on Nov. 4, 1989. Hayakawa said the cultists had no firm plan about what to do with the bodies after the murders but he thought they should be removed from the home.
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