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.

The lawyers asked Hayakawa how the cultists could carry out the murders without a plan to dispose of the bodies. Hayakawa replied that he was just carrying out Asahara's orders, although he had been worried about the murder plans, he said.

Confessions led police to where the corpses were buried, in separate mountain locations in Niigata, Toyama and Nagano prefectures. The six accused allegedly disposed of the bodies after having first visited the Aum complex in Shizuoka Prefecture.