Beijing, China - A trial of leaders of an underground Christian church in China accused of killing 20 members of a rival group has ended, but no verdict has yet been given, a defense lawyer said Monday.
It was not clear when any verdict or possible sentencing would be announced in the trial of 17 members of the Protestant Three Ranks of Servants church, who have said they were tortured into confessing.
"Right now, all we can do is wait," said Wei Rujiu, a defense lawyer in the case, which went to trial last week in the northeastern province of Heilongjiang. He declined to give more details.
Zhang Lihui, a lawyer for Three Ranks of Servants' top leader Xu Wenku, said his client will appeal if he's convicted of any crime.
China Aid Association, a U.S.-based religious rights group, said in an earlier statement that Xu, also known as Xu Shuangfu and Xu Shengguang, has served 10 years in prisons and labor camps since 1976, accused of "illegal evangelizing activities."
Telephones rang unanswered Monday at the offices of the Shuangyashan Intermediate Court, where the trial was held, and at the local prosecutor's office.
Ten of the 17 defendants were charged with murder - punishable by death in China - while the rest face charges including illegal detention, said Bob Fu, president of China Aid, based in Midland, Texas. Fu said there is at least one woman among the defendants.
The trial involves the alleged killings of members of Eastern Lighting, also an unauthorized Christian church, China Aid has said. No details of the case have been released.
Fu and Fan Yawei, a legal scholar at the China Academy of Social Science in Beijing, have said at least some of the defendants were tortured into confessing and later told lawyers they were innocent.
Three Ranks of Servants and Eastern Lightning are among China's many unregistered church groups that observers say frequently compete for members.
China has recently been cracking down on religious organizations after adopting new rules that critics say are used to persecute groups deemed troublesome by authorities.
The government allows worship only in officially approved churches.
However, millions more worship in unregistered groups, often called house churches because they meet in private homes to avoid detection.
Some of the groups have extremely unorthodox beliefs. Infighting and competition for adherents have sometimes led to violence.
Eastern Lightning believes Jesus has returned as a woman who lives in eastern China's Henan province.
Fu and Fan also said some groups have engaged in violence, and both men likened a few of them to "organized crime" gangs.
However, Fu said China Aid is trying to fight the Chinese communist government's alleged use of criminal prosecution to destroy organizations it sees as a threat to its control over society.
He also said his group is concerned over the torture reports - which he said came from unidentified officials, court documents and close relatives of the accused.