An Aum Shinrikyo figure testified in court Friday that cult founder Shoko Asahara ordered him to spray deadly botulin bacteria on government and other public buildings and on facilities belonging to other religious sects in Tokyo.
Shigeo Sugimoto, 39, claimed during Asahara's Tokyo District Court trial session that the guru explained to a dozen senior cultists in April 1990 that killing "helps people to put their souls in a higher stage, since they are repeating an evil deed in the modern world."
Sugimoto claimed he and Tomomitsu Niimi, a senior cultist, afterward drove to Tokyo from Kamikuishiki, Yamanashi Prefecture, in a car specially remodeled to spray botulin on such targets as the Diet building, the Imperial Palace and the American Embassy several times around April and May 1990 and once in August 1993. The attempts did not succeed in killing anyone, he said.
Sugimoto is accused of playing roles in the deadly Tokyo subway sarin attack in March 1995, the killing of Aum follower Toshio Tomita in July 1994 and the January 1994 lynching of errant cultist Kotaro Ochida.