Christian sect followers to die for killing 20 cult rivals

A court has sentenced to death the leader and two members of an underground Christian sect for murdering 20 members of a rival group, while 13 associates got prison terms, a lawyer for the sect's leader said.

Associated Press/July 8, 2006

A court has sentenced to death the leader and two members of an underground Christian sect for murdering 20 members of a rival group, while 13 associates got prison terms, a lawyer for the sect's leader said.

Xu Wenku, the head of the Three Grades of Servants group, is being held responsible for acts committed by followers of his sect, said his lawyer, Li Heping.

He said that prosecutors had failed to directly link Xu to the deaths and said he would file an appeal.

"The Communist Party has 70 million members. If a local party secretary is bad and commits a murder, you don't sentence [President] Hu Jintao to death," Li said.

The case against Xu and other members of the sect has unearthed problems that underground evangelical groups experience as they attract more followers.

Three Grades of Servants had been competing with a heretical sect, Eastern Lightning, for converts in rural areas.

Prosecutors in Xu's indictment said that Three Grades of Servants began losing converts to Eastern Lightning in 1999. By late 2002, Xu sent two senior members, Li Maoxing and Zhang Min, to northeast China to "punish Eastern Lightning," the indictment said.

Over the next two years, it said, 20 Eastern Lightning members were killed by Xu's followers.

The Intermediate People's Court in Shuangyashan, which convicted Xu and the others in March, issued the death sentences Wednesday, a lengthy delay even by mainland standards.

In addition to Xu and two others sentenced to death, three others received suspended death sentences, a punishment usually commuted to life in prison, while 10 others were given jail terms from three to 15 years, Li said.

At the trial, Xu and co-defendant Li Maoxing claimed that police tortured them to extract confessions that they said were false.

Police deprived Xu of sleep for a week and at one point suspended him from the ceiling for five hours, according to a written copy of Li's closing arguments at trial.

Xu, also known as Xu Shengguang or Xu Shangfu, was a seminal figure in the underground Christian movement, and his case was carefully watched by Christian groups at home and abroad.

Eastern Lightning, which has been accused of abducting followers of other groups, claims that Jesus has been reborn as a woman living in Henan.