China to prosecute 'cult' leader
as crackdown continues
REUTERS/KIM KYUNG-HOON
Jul 16, 2015
China will prosecute the leader of what it calls a
"cult" on charges of rape, fraud, sabotage and other crimes, state
news agency Xinhua said, as the government deepens a crackdown on
what it views as illegal and dangerous religious
movements.
Prosecutors in the southern province of Guangdong
are charging Wu Zeheng, founder and leader of Huazang Dharma, and
several others after a year-long probe, the official Xinhua news
agency said late on Wednesday.
The United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom, a bipartisan U.S. government commission, says Wu
and his followers are being persecuted for their religious
beliefs.
Reuters was unable to reach Wu or his group for
comment. It was not clear if he has a lawyer.
A statement on the group's website, which is blocked
in China, appeals for international help for Wu, saying that he is
a purely religious figure facing cooked-up accusations.
Xinhua said that Wu has already been jailed at least
twice, and set up his Buddhist-inspired cult in 2010 upon his last
release from jail.
"Glorified with fabricated educational background
and life experience, Wu eventually became a master with
supernatural power in the eyes of his followers," it
added.
"In the name of charity and life science and through
inflammatory preaching, Wu lured a growing number of believers who
wished to study Buddhism, seek disease treatment, or ward off ill
fortune by joining the cult."
China's official atheist Communist Party does not
tolerate challenges to its rule and is obsessed with social
stability. Religious activities must be state
sanctioned.
Authorities have gone after what they view as cults,
which have multiplied in recent years, and demonstrations have been
put down with force and some sect leaders executed.
The government is considering tougher penalties for
cult members, China's largely rubber stamp parliament said last
month.
China executed two members of a banned religious
cult in February for murdering a woman in a McDonald's restaurant
after she rebuffed an apparent recruitment attempt by the group
last May.
In 1999, then-President Jiang Zemin launched a
campaign to crush the Falun Gong religious group. It was banned as
an "evil cult" after thousands of practitioners staged a surprise
but peaceful sit-in outside the leadership compound in Beijing to
demand official recognition of their movement.