From the Reuters via the New York Times:
China sentenced three members of a local Christian sect to death for the murder of followers of a rival group and ordered likely life sentences for three other members of the controversial underground religion.
The court in Shuangyashan in northeast China’s Heilongjiang province ordered the execution of Xu Shuangfu, the 60-year-old founder of the “Three Grades of Servants,” or Church of Truth, and members Li Maoxing and Wang Jun.
Xu, also known as Xu Wenku, and the other members of the small church were accused of murdering 20 people, mainly members of the rival Oriental Lightning church, between 2002 and 2004. [Full Text]
See New York Times’ “Violence Taints Religion’s Solace for China’s Poor” and Phoenix Weekley magazine’s “An underground church and 16 deaths (in Chinese)”
