TOKYO (Agencies via Xinhua) _ Japanese authorities are trying to find legal ways to suppress a doomsday cult accused of a deadly 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo subways.

Spurred by fears that Aum Shinri Kyo (Supreme Truth Sect) is making a comeback, police and even tax collectors are using all legal means available to combat it.

But authorities complain existing laws do not give them enough scope to take preventive action.

Police last month started conducting raids on shops and other places believed to be run by the sect, which authorities fear is expanding through recruitment drives supported by abundant funding.

Several cult members have been arrested in recent weeks on suspicion of illegally entering private buildings when handing out fliers promoting the group and for allegedly forging documents to buy real estate.

Tax authorities have joined in the crackdown by raiding Aum-affiliated computer stores, believed to be the cult's prime source of income, in search of tax evasion evidence.

The cult, accused of the 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo subways during which 12 people were killed and thousands were made ill, has protested the moves as violations of its constitutional rights to freedom of speech and religion.

"We are ready to take all possible legal measures to protect ourselves from these reckless acts by investigation authorities," an Aum spokesman told a news conference earlier this month.

The cult was stripped of most of its assets in 1996 when it was liquidated by under a court order, but it has managed to amass large funds through their businesses.

Aum has a computer business and a publisher, produces and sells music tapes and runs seminars, according to a Public Security Investigation Agency report. The computer business alone had 7 billion yen (US$58.6 million) in sales in 1998, while the frequent seminars are estimated to have spun a profit of at least 27 million yen (US$226,000), it said.

China Daily 1999/06/22