MOSCOW, October 11 (RIA Novosti) - A Chinese court on Saturday gave two cult group members death sentences and life imprisonment to a third member for beating a woman to death at a McDonalds fast food restaurant after she refused to give them her telephone number in an attempt to recruit her, the BBC reported.
"I beat her with all my might and stamped on her too. She was a demon. We had to destroy her," one of the accused, Zang Lidong was quoted as saying in a prison interview by the news outlet.
The Yantai Intermediate People's Court in the eastern Chinese province of Shandong gave Zhang Fan, 29 and her father Zhang Lidong, 55 the death sentence, while Lu Yingchun, 39 got life imprisonment, after weeks of trial since the incident occurred in May.
Two other participants, friends to Fan and Lidong were given 10 and seven years respectively, and another member of only 12 years of age was tried separately.
According to the court, the murdered woman was waiting in line to get food with her seven year old son when the group attacked her and threatened others not to get involved. The accused beat her with chairs and mops and kicked her with leather shoes, saying they acted in self-defense because they were attacked by the "demon's supernatural powers".
The cult known as the Church of the Almighty God, which believes that Jesus resurrected as a Chinese woman, is prohibited in China, but claims to have millions of members.
According to the BBC, Chinese authorities have already detained thousands of the cult members.
