A former police officer who was arrested Wednesday over the 1995 shooting of the then National Police Agency chief has told investigators that a senior Aum Shinrikyo figure now on death row had ordered him to help the cult carry out the ambush, investigative sources said Thursday.
Police believe cultist Kiyohide Hayakawa, 54, whose death sentence has been upheld by a high court in connection with seven criminal counts, arranged the shooting. They said witnesses reported seeing a man resembling Hayakawa near the ambush site on the day of the attack.
They therefore consider the allegations made by Toshiyuki Kosugi, 39, the former policeman who was also in Aum, as corroborating their suspicions, the sources said.