Moscow Court Cracks Down on Japanese Cult : Religion: All activities by the sect suspected in Tokyo subway attack are outlawed. Group claims 30,000 members in Russia.

A court here Tuesday outlawed all activities of the Aum Supreme Truth sect suspected in last month’s deadly nerve gas attack in Tokyo subways, dealing the group’s huge Russian organization a crushing blow.

Ostankino Municipal Court, hearing a case brought by parents and supporters of Russians who have been lured into doomsday cults, ordered local leaders of Supreme Truth to pay $4 million to the plaintiffs for “moral and physical damage” inflicted on members.

Moscow officials had already confiscated the sect’s six apartments and frozen bank deposits. Those assets may be used to settle the award to the Committee for the Protection of Youth Against Totalitarian Sects if the Ostankino ruling goes unchallenged or is upheld on appeal.

Since the release of sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway system March 20, an attack that killed 12 and afflicted more than 5,500 others, the sect’s Russian organization has been under severe scrutiny.

Last week President Boris N. Yeltsin ordered a full investigation into the Russian branch of Supreme Truth after media reports from Tokyo suggested that Russia might have been a source of weapons or toxins for the Japan-based cult.

Group followers have repeatedly denied that the cult was responsible for the Tokyo poisoning.

Tuesday’s court ruling formally banned broadcasting of sect “propaganda,” further frustrating Supreme Truth’s efforts to appeal to the millions of Russians disillusioned with the chaos that has followed the collapse of the Communist system.

“This is a great joy for me to hear,” said an elated Irina Tarasova, a 27-year-old teacher whose husband left her and their 6-year-old daughter a year ago for the cult. “They will not get any more souls for their pantheon.”

But she expressed fear that the cult, which claims 30,000 Russian members, might simply move underground.

Tarasova’s husband, Vladimir, visited her last week after the sect’s routine began unraveling following the property confiscations and the disappearance of Fumihiro Joyu, the local sect leader who is thought to have left the country. “He was in a deep depression and said he expected such a court ruling,” Tarasova said of her husband. “But he said: ‘We will revive again. These are just temporary difficulties.’ ”

Irina Shalganova, a former Supreme Truth follower who testified against the sect in court earlier this month, was more optimistic that the ruling will drive out the cult. “They won’t be able to drag more people into their abyss,” she said.

Alexander V. Filatov, lawyer for the families who sued the sect, agreed that the decision would hamper what is left of the group’s recruitment program in Russia.

Police had previously brushed off appeals from family members of Supreme Truth followers, claiming that the organization was legally registered, Filatov said. “This decision marks the end of the first stage of our struggle,” he said. “Now we must move on to the second stage--rehabilitation of the victims of this sect.”

* COMMUTERS SICKENED: Yokohama train and subway riders are hospitalized, complaining of bad odors. A30