A 43-year-old senior doctor at a state-run hospital was arrested Tuesday for allegedly poisoning seven doctors by adding sodium azide to a water pot in October 1998.
Hiroshi Ishida, chief physician at Utano Hospital in Kyoto's Ukyo Ward, is suspected of poisoning the water on Oct. 28, 1998, police said.
A total of eight doctors, including Ishida, told police that they experienced dizziness or nausea after drinking coffee or tea made with water from the pot. None of the doctors were seriously affected and all recovered within hours.
In the subsequent investigation, however, police found that Ishida had no trace of poison in his system and that he had no alibi for the time of the incident.