A former Russian security chief sold Japan's doomsday cult the blueprints it used to build a nerve gas plant, a former cult member testified Wednesday.
The Aum Shinri Kyo cult could not have made the nerve gas without the Russian's help, said Yoshihiro Inoue, the cult's former intelligence chief.Kyodo News agency reported the testimony Wednesday in the murder trial of cult founder Shoko Asahara, who is accused of orchestrating a 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo's subway. The gas killed 12 people and sickened thousands.
Inoue said the cult paid former Russian Security Council secretary Oleg Lobov about $79,000 for the blueprints for the gas plant.
A cult member brought the plans to Japan two years before the attack on the subway and about a year before a gas attack in central Japan that killed seven people, the cult's former doctor, Ikuo Hayashi, testified.
The two men said Asahara ordered the gas production.
Police have said they have evidence that cult experts made repeated trips to Russia, Australia and other countries to study the feasibility of obtaining a wide range of weapons and dangerous materials, including tanks and uranium.
Inoue also testified that Asahara considered a sarin attack on Emperor Akihito, Kyodo News said. In one proposal, the cult would have attacked the emperor in the Imperial Palace.
The idea was dropped in the planning stages, Inoue testified.