Hayakawa Kiyohide
Ex-cop fingers cultist over '95 shooting
Friday, July 9, 2004
A former police officer who was arrested Wednesday over the 1995 shooting of the then National Police Agency chief has told investigators that a senior Aum Shinrikyo figure now on death row had ordered him to help the cult carry out the ambush, investigative sources said Thursday.
News photo
Kiyohide Hayakawa
Police believe cultist Kiyohide Hayakawa, 54, whose death sentence has been upheld by a high court in connection with seven criminal counts, arranged the shooting. They said witnesses reported seeing a man resembling Hayakawa near the ambush site on the day of the attack.
They therefore consider the allegations made by Toshiyuki Kosugi, 39, the former policeman who was also in Aum, as corroborating their suspicions, the sources said.
Kosugi, who is thought to have joined Aum around 1988, was arrested along with three other Aum figures on suspicion of involvement in the ambush on March 30, 1995, when then NPA chief Takaji Kunimatsu was shot three times in the stomach, but survived.
According to the sources, Kosugi has stated that he was inspired by Hayakawa, who told him he needed his support for "salvation."
Hayakawa was quoted as telling Kosugi on the day of the attack: "I know you have tried your best (for Aum), and our leader (Aum founder Shoko Asahara) expects you to continue the efforts.
"Are you insensitive to the possible annihilation of Aum? We have to depend on you (to maintain the cult)."
The shooting occurred eight days after Tokyo police launched a series of raids targeting Aum, triggered by the deadly sarin attack on the Tokyo subway system March 20, 1995. Kunimatsu was directing the investigation into Aum, which renamed itself Aleph in January 2000.
In the months after the ambush, Kosugi confessed to the shooting. He told police that cased the scene several times. A man believed to be Hayakawa was also seen near Kunimatsu's house the day before the attack, the sources said.
Hayakawa joined Aum in 1986 and was one of its longest-serving members. He was dubbed the "construction minister" within the cult.
Hayakawa and Asahara, 49, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto, are among 12 individuals who have been sentenced to death for a series of Aum-related crimes.
Although investigators have met Hayakawa at the Tokyo Detention House, he has refused to admit he was involved in the shooting.
In May 1996, Kosugi made what police reckoned was a false confession to shooting Kunimatsu. In October that year, police divers searched the Kanda River in Tokyo on the basis of this confession, but were unable to find the handgun he said he had used to shoot the NPA chief. Kosugi was later fired and went to work in a factory in Shizuoka.
Tokyo prosecutors pressed no charges against him, lacking corroborating evidence.
While questioning Kosugi, investigators have separately discovered that Hayakawa arranged four or five meetings prior to the shooting with cult members who carried out the attack, the sources said.
Police believe Hayakawa assigned the cultists their specific roles in the ambush at these meetings, including the suspected shooter, Satoru Hashimoto, who has been sentenced to hang for other crimes, they said.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ex-Aum member Hayashi loses appeal against death sentence
Saturday, February 16, 2008
TOKYO — The Supreme Court on Friday rejected an appeal against the death sentence for former Aum Shinrikyo cult member Yasuo Hayashi, who was convicted of murder for releasing deadly sarin gas in a Tokyo subway car in 1995 and involvement in another sarin attack in Nagano Prefecture.
Hayashi, 50, will follow four others who have had death sentences finalized in connection with a series of crimes committed by the group including Aum founder Shoko Asahara, 52, whose real name is Chizuo Matsumoto. According to the ruling, Hayashi conspired with Matsumoto and others in perpetrating the deadly gas attack on the Tokyo subway system in March 1995. Twelve people were killed and more than 5,000 were injured in the attack. (Kyodo News)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Former senior member of AUM cult asks top court to spare him death penalty
（Mainichi Japan） December 14, 2007
Defense lawyers for a former senior member of the AUM Shinrikyo cult who was convicted of murder in the 1995 deadly gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system demanded the Supreme Court spare him the death penalty.
Yasuo Hayashi, 49, was sentenced to death in lower court rulings. His lawyers concluded their appeal at the Supreme Court on Friday. A date for the ruling will be announced later.
Hayashi was accused of murder and other crimes following three cases including the March 1995 sarin gas attacks on the Tokyo subway system and the June 1994 sarin gas attack in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture.
In the 1995 subway attack, Hayashi took three plastic bags containing sarin with him and scattered the deadly gas on the subway system. The attacks, conducted by Hayashi and other cult members, left 12 people dead.
During the trial on Friday, defense lawyers for Hayashi demanded the top court spare him capital punishment, saying, "The defendant feared he would be harmed if he failed to commit the crimes."
Prosecutors, meanwhile, demanded that the court dismiss the appeal.
オウム裁判：林被告の上告審が結審 死刑回避を主張
地下鉄サリンの散布役で、松本サリン事件にも関与したとして殺人罪などに問われ、１、２審で死刑判決を受けた元オウム真理教幹部、林泰男被告（４９）の上告審弁論が１４日、最高裁第２小法廷（古田佑紀裁判長）であった。弁護側は「犯行を断って危害を加えられることを恐れ、従属的立場で関与していた」などと死刑回避を求めた。検察側は上告棄却を主張して結審した。判決期日は後日指定される。【高倉友彰】
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~