2 sentenced to death for cult killing in McDonald's

A Chinese court has sentenced to death two members of a fringe religious group for beating a woman to death at a McDonald's restaurant, reportedly after she rebuffed their attempts to recruit her. [Photo/qlwb.com]

A Chinese court has sentenced to death two members of a fringe religious group for beating a woman to death at a McDonald's restaurant, reportedly after she rebuffed their attempts to recruit her.

Defendants Zhang Fan, 29, and her father Zhang Lidong, 55, were found guilty of intentional homicide and of "using an evil cult organization to undermine the law," according to a statement yesterday by the Yantai Intermediate People's Court in east China's Shandong Province.

It was not known if the pair planned to appeal.

A third defendant, 39-year-old Lu Yingchun, was sentenced to life in prison. Two others, a younger sister of Zhang Fan and a female friend of Zhang Lidong, were jailed for 10 and seven years respectively.

The five and a 12-year-old, who was tried separately, are members of a cult called Quannengshen, the court said.

It added that they attacked the woman, surnamed Wu, in a fast food restaurant in Zhaoyuan City in Shandong in May, after she refused to give them her phone number.

The group beat the woman with a chair, mops and kicked and trampled on her with leather shoes, the court said.

'Extremely cruel'

They prevented anyone in the restaurant from intervening, the court said. It described the murder as "extremely cruel."

The group, whose name can be translated as Church of Almighty God, believe that Jesus has been reincarnated as a Chinese woman and refer to the Communist Party of China as the "great red dragon."

It was outlawed by the government in the mid-1990s.

After the May incident, an online video emerged showing a man resembling Zhang Lidong striking out with a pole, shouting "Damn you, devil! Go to hell!" as a woman yelled "Kill her! Beat her to death!"

The three minutes of footage, apparently shot on a mobile phone, only included a fraction of a second of what could be the victim.

Others in the restaurant could be heard screaming as they fled, with one diner shouting: "Don't look. Go!"

China's supreme court must review and approve death sentences from trial courts.

Both Zhang and Lu told the court they acted in self-defense after being attacked by the "demon's supernatural powers."

"She was a demon," Zhang Lidong said in an interview with China Central Television.

"We are not afraid of the law, we trust in God," he added.