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JUNG YEON-I
Lee stood with his eyes closed as he read the judgment
A South Korean pastor was sentenced to 15 years in prison for raping eight followers of his mega-church.
Lee Jae-rock, 75, has about 130,000 followers at the central Mamin church in Seoul. He denied all the accusations.
His victims had spoken of his "divine power" and declared that they felt obliged to do what he asked them because "he was God".
Most South Korean Christians belong to traditional churches that can accumulate considerable wealth and influence.
However, a small number of marginal groups adopt more cult-related behavior, including coercion, brainwashing, and fraud.
Lee's church is considered a dissident cult by some traditional Christian organizations.
- "I lost all my family because of a cult"
Lee created Mamin's central church in 1982 with only 12 followers. It has now become a mega-church, with its huge headquarters and auditorium and a promising website of miracles.
Earlier this year, three of his supporters came forward to say that he had called them to his apartment and forced them to have sex.
"I could not refuse it," said one of them to the South Korean press at the time.
"He was more than a king, he was God," said the woman who has declared to be a member of the church since childhood.
A total of eight women filed criminal charges and were arrested in May.
The court concluded that Lee had assaulted and raped the victims "dozens of times" over a long period.
"By his sermons, the accused directly or indirectly suggested that he was the Holy Spirit, deifying himself," Judge Chung Moon-sung told the Central District Court in Seoul.
The victims saw him as "a divine being who holds the divine power," he said.
Lee stood with his eyes closed during the reading of the judgment.
His defense alleged that the women were lying for revenge after being excommunicated for breaking the rules of the church.
