CHINA: A Chinese court has sentenced to death three members of a Christian cult called the Three Grades of Servants for murdering followers of a rival sect in a case which offers a grim insight into underground cults in China.
The trial was a tale of ritual murders, bizarre religious beliefs and gold Rolex watches that has horrified many people in China, which remains largely secular even though state-approved religion is tolerated.
A court in the north-eastern province of Heilongjiang ordered the execution of Xu Shuangfu (60), founder of the Three Grades of Servants, also known as the Church of Truth, and two of its members, Li Maoxing and Wang Jun. Mr Xu and other disciples were accused of murdering 20 people, most of them members of the rival Eastern Lightning church, between 2002 and 2004.
Mr Xu founded the Three Grades of Servants in the mid-1980s, combining strains of Christian tradition with his own esoteric claims. The Three Grades of Servants claimed to be Bible-reading Christians. In 1999 and 2000, the sect was pronounced an evil cult by the Ministry of Public Security.
Prosecutors accused the three defendants of murdering former members who left to join Eastern Lightning, a Christian-inspired sect founded in the central province of Hunan by a woman called Zheng who claimed to be the female reincarnation of Jesus in China, hence the name "Lightning of the East". In 2001, Eastern Lightning was pronounced an evil cult by the Chinese government.
Mr Xu believed that Eastern Lightning was controlled by satanic forces and ordered his followers to attack its members. One Eastern Lightning believer was beaten up and killed after his eyes, nose and ears were cut off. Two of its preachers were buried alive in a lotus field while others were strangled or beaten to death.
Mr Xu and the other defendants were accused of fraud to the tune of €3.2 million and prosecutors said that he had bought a Mercedes Benz, a VW Passat, two houses and a gold Rolex watch worth about €300,000 with church dues.