YANTAI, China, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- The homicide trial of five defendants, accused of beating a woman to death as they attempted to recruit her to a Christian cult, began Thursday in Yantai, China.
It is the most visible sign of the Chinese government's attempt to eliminate the Church of Almighty God, a cult which believes Jesus has been reincarnated as a Chinese woman, and instructs its small band of adherents to desert their families and to reject the Communist Party.
The five defendants, four women and a man, are accused of killing 37-year-old Wu Shuoyan in a McDonald's restaurant in May while she awaited her husband and son. The defendants allegedly beat and kicked her to death after failing to recruit her to the sect. Five are charged with homicide; three are also accused of "using a cult to undermine the law."
The victim was among patrons who were asked their names and phone numbers in the restaurant by the defendants, and while cellphone cameras recorded the beating, no restaurant patron intervened to help her. Images of the attack were seen on the Internet, and public opposition to the cult rose after one defendant, Zhang Lidong, said of the victim in a televised interview, "My daughter said she took one look and saw she was no good. It was an evil spirit, a demon."
A crackdown on the cult followed, and police claim 1,000 of its adherents and nearly 100 church leaders have been detained.
"The Church of Almighty God fraudulently uses the name of religion to swindle the public and illegally reap wealth. In recent years, it had been the cause of many cases of harming the public's safety, of person and property as well as social stability," a report in China's state-run news agency Xinhua said.
The trial underscores the growth of religious groups in China, despite repeated suppression attempts by the government. Human rights groups regularly report alarm at the breadth of the attempted subduals, especially if danger to the public or political defiance is the aim of the group.
"If the group or some of its participants or organizers commit or plan to commit violence or another criminal act, then they should be held accountable according to law, as in this McDonald's killing," said Maya Wang of the advocacy organization Human Rights Watch. "But the authorities shouldn't punish an entire group for the fact that they share certain beliefs and participate in an association."
