The defense counsel for Aum Shinrikyo founder Shoko Asahara on Thursday cross-examined police officers who were involved in the investigation of the June 1994 sarin attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.
Toshikuni Toda, an officer with the Matsumoto Police Station and a witness for the prosecution, detailed before the Tokyo District Court the early morning probe police conducted June 28, 1994, at the victims' residences.
The attack, at the time a mysterious occurrence that left seven people dead and hundreds of others ill, had taken place the previous day. Police suspected poison gas might have been used, but they began their investigation without gas masks and other equipment, Toda testified. "We didn't know anything (about the cause of the incident), including the kind of gas that was possibly used. We had to find out what it was," he said.