Ex-prosecutor: 'Aum made preparations to topple the government'

The Aum Supreme Truth cult could have toppled the government and taken power, even only for a short period, by committing mass murder in Tokyo with 70 tons of deadly sarin gas and 1,000 automatic rifles, a former Supreme Court justice said in an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun. Tatsuo Kainaka, 71, led investigations on Aum-related crimes as deputy chief prosecutor at the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Office before becoming a Supreme Court justice. As the last of the Aum trials finally ended Monday, Kainaka discussed lessons learned from authorities' failure to crack down on the cult earlier and how the cult's plan to control the capital was prevented. (Yomiuri)