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- BEIJING (Agence France Presse)
- The head of a Chinese millennium sect with some 10,000 followers has
been executed after being convicted of fraud, rape and "sabotaging
the law" through "Satanic religious activities," reports
said Thursday.
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- Liu Jiaguo, founder of the Zhu Shen Jiao (Supreme Spirit)
sect, was executed in central Hunan Province on Tuesday following his June
18 conviction by a Xiangtan city, Hunan Provincial court, the Beijing Youth
Daily reported.
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- Liu was convicted of raping 11 women and two girls.
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- The sentence for the sect's number two leader Zhu Aiqing
was reduced from 20 years to 17 years following the appeal of her fraud
and complicity in rape convictions.
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- The sect's third leader, Li Ping, was sentenced in March
to 10 years in prison by a separate court in the same province on similar
charges, the report said.
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- The severity of the sentences are in contrast to the
cautious approach the authorities have taken to the Falungong sect, which
defied the government by holding a massive protest in Beijing in April.
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- Liu Jiaguo was a disciple of another sect, Peiliwang,
which was active between 1993 and 1994 in southern China before its founder
Wu Yangmin was executed for rape in 1995. ((c) 1999 Agence France Presse)
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