China tries 5 accused cult members for murder

Five people stood trial Thursday in the beating death of a woman at a McDonald's restaurant in eastern China who reportedly refused to join their anti-Communist Christian sect — a high-profile crime that led to a wave of arrests of cult suspects. The five members of the ‘All-powerful Spirit’ group, including a man and his two daughters, were accused of hitting the woman with chairs and a metal pole after she refused to give them her phone number, in violence captured on cellphone video that was later broadcast on state TV. The ‘All-powerful Spirit,’ also known as ‘Eastern Lightning,’ believes that Jesus was resurrected as a Chinese woman and sees itself in a struggle against the ‘Red Dragon,’ or the Chinese Communist Party. It is one of 14 cults that China has listed as illegal, according to the official Xinhua News Agency. The crime took place on May 28 in Zhaoyuan city in Shandong province, a traditional hotbed for religious sects. The region gave birth to the violent anti-Christian Boxer movement that laid siege to Western interests in Beijing and elsewhere during the waning years of the Qing dynasty in 1900. The five defendants were accused of murder and three also faced cult-related charges in the one-day trial at Yantai Intermediate People's Court. The court posted photos of what it said were the proceedings on its microblog, and said the judge would give a verdict at an unspecified later date, according to AP.