A former senior member of Aum Shinrikyo testified March 13 that he tried unsuccessfully in the fall of 1989 to install a wiretapping device at the home and office of a Diet member under the orders of cult founder Shoko Asahara.

Yasuo Hayashi, 40, stands accused of murder, attempted murder and other charges in connection with the March 1995 subway gassing, the June 1994 Matsumoto nerve gas attack and the May 1995 foiled cyanide gas attack at Shinjuku Station. He testified as a prosecution witness in Asahara's trial and was cross-examined by the defense March 13.

He was arrested on Ishigaki Island in Okinawa Prefecture in December 1996 after 18 months on the run. In a soft voice and demeanor that betrays the widely-reported image of a fearless fugitive before his arrest, Hayashi told the court that he became a live-in cult follower in December 1988, hoping to "shine" his mind and "bring some kind of benefit to society."

But by the following year, he said he was ordered to carry out his first "secret assignment," which was to wiretap Nobuteru Ishihara, a Liberal Democratic Party member in the Lower House. Hayashi added that the order came from Asahara, although it was conveyed through Kiyohide Hayakawa, another senior cultist.

Asked by a defense lawyer whether he questioned the order, Hayashi claimed he did, adding that is why the eavesdropping attempt failed. "I would have succeeded had I been serious," Hayashi told the court, "but I did not think I needed to, or wanted to."

Although he doubted many of the cult's clandestine activities, Hayashi could not rebel because of his spiritual experiences with Asahara and out of fear that he would be murdered if he fled the cult, he said.

Hayashi also admitted that he was involved in making a device to release nerve gas in June 1994 that was used in the Matsumoto gassing. During his assignment, he did not know exactly what the device would be used for, but heard from a cultist that the cult was preparing to defend itself from poison gas attacks, Hayashi said.