HONG KONG, Dec. 31 (UPI) -- China has sentenced the leader of a banned Christian sect to death, the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy in China said Monday.
The center said the founder of the South China Church, Gong Shengliang, 46, was convicted of complicity in rape by the Jingmen City Intermediate Court.
The Hong Kong based rights group said charges against Gong included "using a cult to undermine the enforcement of the law."
It said he was sentenced to death for having started the underground church and for having been associated in at least a dozen rape cases and injuring 14 people during rituals at the church.
It said Gong had appealed to Hubei's High Court.
The center said Gong's niece, Li Ying, was also given a death sentence but that was suspended for two years.
The rights group said Gong and Li were among 17 church officials given sentences by the Jingmen court in Hubei province. The 15 others each received jail terms from two years to life in prison.
Gong started the church as an offshoot of another Christian group called the Total Scope Church. The center said Gong's trouble might have begun with the publication of a magazine called Huanan Zhuankan or South China Special Issue. In all there were 48 editions of the magazine and over 500,000 copies in circulation.
Li's conviction centered on the printing and distribution of the publication and she was charged with attempting "intentional damage" and breaking the law with an organized gang.
Gong's church gained popularity over the last decade and its congregation grew to over 50,000 in 10 provinces across the center of the country. Gong was arrested along with his fellow worshippers in April after the authorities decided his church was a cult. The center said this could be part of the government's fight to stamp out the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual movement, which it sees as a threat to its control.
China allows media and publications to broadcast or print only with government consent. There is no independent press. Churches too are only allowed to conduct services if they fall under non-denominational state control.
