Police: Setsuri cult no. 2 in hiding in Taiwan

Mainichi Shimbun/January 19, 2007

Chiba -- A high-ranking member of the Providence cult (known in Japan as Setsuri), wanted by police for violating the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law, is in hiding in Taiwan, law enforcers said Friday.

Investigators suspect that the 44-year-old woman, who is second-in-command of the South Korea-based cult's Japanese chapter, chose to hide in Taiwan because it has no criminal extradition treaty with Japan.

She left Narita Airport for Seoul in late July last year, shortly after it emerged that the cult's founder Jung Myung-seok had allegedly raped numerous Japanese followers. She is believed to have initially stayed on Cheju Island, but subsequently fled to Taiwan.

The cult's founder, also wanted by South Korean law enforcement authorities for rape, is believed to be hiding in China -- which has no criminal extradition treaty with South Korea.

Chiba Prefectural Police on Thursday raided a cult building in Chiba, where the woman had lived over her alleged immigration law violation, and other locations on Friday.