Seoul (AFP)

Seoul City Hall has filed a homicide complaint against the leaders of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, accusing the religious movement of failing to prevent the spread of the coronavirus epidemic in South Korea.

The country has for several days been struggling with an outbreak of the disease, which has infected more than 4,000 people. And 60% of them directly linked to this powerful but opaque organization, accused by its detractors of being a sect.

Authorities have launched a vast screening campaign to quickly map the extent of the disease, seeking to control more than 266,000 Shincheonji worshipers, but the organization is accused of having transmitted an inaccurate listing of the names of its followers .

Seoul City Hall has announced a lawsuit against 12 movement leaders, including its founder Lee Man-hee. She accuses them in particular of homicide and of infringements of the laws on the control of infectious diseases.

"They have taken no measures to encourage their members to cooperate actively with the health authorities to prevent the spread of Covid-19," the authorities said, according to a statement from the government of the Seoul region.

The mayor of Seoul Park Won-soon clarified these grievances on his Facebook page. "If they had taken active steps early, we could have prevented the explosion in the number of Covid-19 cases in Daegu and North Gyeongbuk province and the deaths of many."

It is up to the prosecution to decide whether or not to open an investigation into this complaint. The South Korean agency Yonhap reports that the complaint is under investigation.

The Shincheonji Church of Jesus declined to comment on this legal action: "The most important thing for us today is decontamination and the priority is to put an end to the Covid epidemic as soon as possible- 19 ".

The spread of the disease within Shincheonji was from a 61-year-old woman identified as "patient 31". She started suffering from fever on February 10 and attended at least four Shincheonji offices in Daegu before being diagnosed with the virus.

Also known as the Temple of the Testimony Tabernacle, the Shincheonji Church of Jesus was founded in 1984 by Mr. Lee, now 88 years old.

This movement claims that this man has put on the clothes of Jesus Christ and will take 144,000 people to paradise on the Day of Judgment. The number of followers of the movement is however much higher than the 144,000 places promised.

© 2020 AFP