25 members of religious cult group jailed in China

Twenty five members of a banned Christian group that China calls an "illegal cult" have been sent to prison terms of up to eight years for disturbing social order and violating local laws in the communist state.
All the convicted were followers of Quannengshen, or The Church of Almighty God among several other names -- a heretic sect with strong violent tendencies.
They were charged with spreading materials related to the cult in public places, disturbing social order and undermining national laws and regulations, state-run Xinhua news agency reported today citing a ruling by a Court in northwest China's Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

The cult came into spotlight when six Quannengshen members beat a woman to death on May 28 at a fast food restaurant in Zhaoyuan City in the eastern province of Shandong for refusing to give her telephone number to them. The incident had sparked a huge public outrage on social media.
The suspects were allegedly trying to recruit members for their sect.
The cult, appeared in the 1990s in central China's Henan Province, claims that Jesus has been resurrected as Yang Xiangbin, wife of the sect's founder Zhao Weishan, also known as Xu Wenshan. The couple fled to the US in September 2000.

The sect has been widely criticised for spreading rumours and coercing people to become members and was outlawed in 1995.
In late October and early November 1998, numerous robberies and assaults involving the cult and its members were reported over 12 days in Henan, with victims' limbs broken and ears cut off, the Xinhua report said.
China had launched a crackdown in 2012 on the group after it announced a "decisive battle" to slaughter the "Red Dragon" Communist Party. It had also proclaimed that the world would end in 2012.