McDonald's murder case called for public outcry in China and sparked national news when a 37-year-old woman died-on-the-spot after she was beaten to death by cult members in 2014. Today, justice has prevailed, after two of the cult members were executed for McDonald's murder case.
Two of the suspects for the McDonald's murder, Zhang Lidong and his daughter Zhang Fan had been executed Monday for committing intentional homicide. The execution report was revealed by Shandong Yantai Intermediate People's Court on its Weibo page Monday morning, BBC noted.
Prior to execution of the two main suspects on McDonald's murder case, they were allowed to see their family members according to the Shandong Yantai Intermediate People's Court announcement.
Wu Shuoyan was attacked by a group of "Church of Almighty God" or "Quannengshen." in McDonald's restaurant in eastern province of Shandong on May 2014. Declining to give her phone number twice, the group labeled her as "possessed by an evil spirit" and beat her to death inside the restaurant.
The Guardian reported that Wu Shuoyan was beaten and kicked with mops. Zhang Fan even threw a chair on the woman. The victim also suffered stamping on her face and head bringing injuries that pushed her to her sudden death.
The cult entered McDonald's branch in Zhaoyuan, and solicited phone numbers from customers with the wish to recruit them to their cult.
McDonald's murder initiated national outrage detaining hundreds of cult members during the time.
Apart from McDonald's murder suspects, Zhang Lidong and his daughter Zhang Fan, Wu Shuoyan was also attacked by three other cult members, Lu Yingchun, Zhang Hang and Zhang Qiaolian, who were also convicted for the crime and were sentenced from seven years to life imprisonment, CNN reported.
"Church of Almighty God" or "Quannengshen" is one of the 14 banned religious groups in China since 1995 according to China's Ministry of Public Security. The prohibited cult was involved in series of extortion, kidnapping and violence in China.
The "Church of Almighty God" was founded by a former physics teacher, Zhao Weishan 25 years back with the belief that God returned to earth as a Chinese woman who was the wife of Weishan, Yang Xiangbin to wreak the Judgment Day.
Zhang Lidong, the executed McDonald's murder suspect, in an earlier interview stated that "I beat her with all my might and stamped on her too. She was a demon. We had to destroy her."
