SEOUL, Aug. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — The Supreme Court on Friday upheld lower courts’ acquittal of a religious sect leader of charges that he obstructed the government’s response to COVID-19 outbreaks in 2020. Lee Man-hee, the 91-year-old founder of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, was indicted two years ago for allegedly underreporting the number of [...]
SUWON, Jan. 13 (Korea Bizwire) — A local court on Wednesday acquitted the leader of a minor religious sect of charges of obstructing the government’s response to COVID-19 during an outbreak at his church last year. Lee Man-hee, the 89-year-old founder of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, was indicted in August on charges of misleading [...]
SUWON, Aug. 1 (Korea Bizwire) — The leader of a minor religious sect at the center of the early coronavirus outbreak in South Korea was arrested early Saturday for allegedly obstructing the government’s efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic. A local court in Suwon, south of Seoul, issued an arrest warrant for Lee [...]
SEOUL, June 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Shincheonji, a minor religious sect, said Tuesday that it will donate blood plasma of thousands of its congregants who have recovered from the novel coronavirus to support the development of a vaccine or drug to treat the virus. “The government has helped us a lot, having our followers treated,” [...]
DAEGU, June 23 (Korea Bizwire) — Daegu, once the epicenter of South Korea’s new coronavirus outbreak, filed a civil damage suit against a fringe religious sect for allegedly causing mass infections by hindering the city’s quarantine efforts, the city said Tuesday. The city, the country’s fourth-largest with 24.3 million people, filed the suit with the [...]
SEOUL, March 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The Seoul city government canceled a permit for a foundation apparently associated with Shincheonji Thursday, accusing the fringe religious sect of aggravating the coronavirus outbreak. The Shincheonji Church of Jesus, estimated to have more than 200,000 followers in the country, and its founder Lee Man-hee face multiple lawsuits. They [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 24 (Korea Bizwire) — As a majority of the latest coronavirus infections are soaring among worshipers of a homegrown religious group of Shincheonji, South Korean churches and temples have been suspending public services amid growing fears over further spreading of the epidemic at crowed religious events. South Korea reported a total of 763 [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 23 (Korea Bizwire) — More than half of coronavirus infections in South Korea are linked to the homegrown religious group of Shincheonji, data showed Sunday. The religious organization, known as Shincheonji Church of Jesus, Temple of the Tabernacle of the Testimony, has been suspected as a hotbed for the recent surge in infections [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — A homegrown religious group is drawing a growing spotlight and suspicion as a hotbed for coronavirus outbreaks, as more than half of the nation’s confirmed cases are traced to its worshipers. The Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said Friday that 98 of the country’s 156 confirmed [...]
SEOUL, Feb. 21 (Korea Bizwire) — As part of drastic measures to fight the spreading new coronavirus, the Seoul city government on Friday said it will ban rallies at three major public squares in the city center and close down Shincheonji churches in the capital. “We plan to ban the use of Seoul plaza, Cheonggye [...]