FIVE cult members went on trial Thursday for beating a woman to death at a McDonald’s restaurant in a Shandong Province city.

    The woman, surnamed Wu, was attacked in May at the restaurant in Zhaoyuan in Shandong after refusing to give the suspects her telephone number. They were seeking to recruit her into a cult called Quannengshen (Almighty God).

    “The indictment charged the defendants Zhang Fan, Zhang Lidong, Lu Yingchun, Zhang Hang, Zhang Qiaolian jointly with intentional homicide,” the Yantai Intermediate People’s Court said on Sina Weibo.

    Apart from murder, the five were charged with illegal cult activities, according to the court.

    Zhang Fan, Zhang Lidong and Lu Yingchun refused to plead guilty. It is not clear how long the trial will last.

    Gao Cheng, lawyer of the victim’s family, applied for the withdrawal of a civil lawsuit against the assailants Thursday morning because the family did not want to leave any room for leniency in ruling against the suspects, reports said.

    Earlier reports said the family was considering suing the assailants up to 5 million yuan (US$793,000) in compensation.

    The Quannengshen sect has been widely criticized for using rumors to confuse people and coercing others to join the cult. In October and early November 1998, robberies and assaults connected with the cult were reported over 12 days in Henan’s Tanghe County, with victims’ limbs broken and ears cut off.

    According to Chinese laws, a cult is an illegal organization that tries to control people by deifying the sect leader, delude members under the guise of religion or in other names and engage in activities that harm the society. China currently lists 14 such illegal cults, including Quannengshen and Falungong.(SD-Xinhua)