BEIJING - Another eight people have been sentenced to prison terms of two to 15 years in the closely watched retrial of leaders of a banned Chinese Christian sect, a religious activist based overseas said Friday.
The verdicts bring to 13 the number South China Church leaders convicted this week in a second trial ordered after a high court — in a move extraordinary for China — threw out cult charges that had resulted in death sentences for five church leaders.
Five verdicts in the second trial were reported by activists Thursday, but other sentences had been unclear.
Activist Bob Fu, who reported the additional verdicts, said four other women acquitted at the trial have been sent to labor camps for three years — a punishment ordered by police outside the judicial process.
Court officials were either unavailable for comment or refused to release information over the telephone. The trial has been reported on extensively by highly reliable sources in the religious and human-rights communities.
The retrial, like the original one, was apparently held behind closed doors.
The case's handling has been highly unusual for China, where religion is closely regulated and worship is permitted only in the government church. The high court's action, a rare act of judicial intervention against vague and sweeping cult charges, could reflect a move by courts to force prosecutors to better prove their charges.
Other observers said the retrial and lesser sentences may have been a public relations move ahead of President Jiang Zemin's visit to the United States, where the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush has drawn attention to restrictions on religious freedom in China.
"It is a gift for President Bush in advance of Jiang's trip," said Gary Lane, a spokesman for U.S.-based advocacy group Voice of the Martyrs.
The retrial by the Jingmen Intermediate Court in the southern province of Hubei was ordered after the Provincial High Court, on Sept. 22, threw out charges including "using an evil cult to undermine the enforcement of the law."
Sect leader Gong Shengliang and four others had been sentenced to death last December on the charge, as well as for rape and assault.
Within days, prosecutors refiled the rape and assault charges. The sect's lawyer claimed he was given no warning of what charges they would face and had no time to prepare a defense.
On Thursday, Gong was given a life sentence for rape and assault, while two others were given the same sentence for assault. Two more were given 15-year terms for assault.
Fu, executive director of the U.S.-based Committee for Investigation on Persecution of Religion in China, said the other eight were also convicted on assault charges.
According to documents filed at the first trial, Gong was accused of raping several female sect members and ordering the beatings of followers who feuded with the church leadership over doctrine and finances. Church followers said Gong, 46, denied the charges, and claimed police tortured women into testifying.
Gong established the South China Church in 1991 and it grew over a decade to encompass some 50,000 members spread through 10 provinces in eastern and central China. Such groups, sometimes known as "house churches" because worshippers are often forced to meet secretly in private homes, thrive in many parts of China despite government harassment.
China labeled the church an "evil cult," part of an ongoing campaign against the outlawed Falun Gong spiritual sect and other groups seen by the Communist Party's leadership as challenging its political monopoly.