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[Daegu MBC news report].

Incidents of violence by Church of God members

[anchor].

Members of the Church of God have used violence against members who have left the church, accusing them of slandering their religion. Police have launched an investigation into the incident.

At around 2:30 p.m. yesterday, four people, including 33-year-old Kim Mo, a church member, and 28-year-old Hwang Mo, a church member, beat Kim with a blunt object at her home in 00-dong, Buk-gu, Daegu, severely injuring her because she had been slandering their church as a cult.

They even videotaped themselves beating Kim in front of the victim's 4-year-old son and extracting an apology from her.

Three members of the same church, including 31-year-old Jeon Mo, a former member of the church, visited 31-year-old Kim Mo in 00-dong, 0-gu, yesterday at around 3 p.m., demanding that she write an apology letter for the same reason, and assaulted her and broke her household goods.

In Daegu, there have been more than six incidents of violence by members of this church in the last two weeks, including three in a single day yesterday.

Police are also investigating the possibility of organized church involvement in the violence, given that the victims were former members who had recently left.

In the past three weeks, seven cases of Church of God members assaulting members who left the church have been reported to the Eastern Police Station and two to the Northern Police Station.

Moreover, the three assaults that occurred on the 29th of this month are similar in timing and method, raising the possibility of an organized crime.

However, the police are only focusing on investigating the incidents they have received, and are not investigating the people behind them.

[Interview] Dongbu police officer

This is a very sensitive case. We have no intention of doing that (behind-the-scenes investigation) yet. The case is too big to investigate the parties in this case.

[anchor].

The conflict is deeply entrenched, with 42 cases of assault and defamation filed by both sides and 850 complaints lodged with the Eastern Police Department.

Threats continue to be made to many of the 200 or so members who have left the church, and it's unclear what could happen next.

[Interview] Church of God Leaver

They (church members) call me directly and swear at me. They say things they can't say and say they want to kill me.

(When I report the assault) they tell me that the police cannot intervene because it is a religious matter.

[anchor].

More recently, church members chased a former church member fleeing to the police station and confronted the police.

Police can't even respond to the destruction of public order.

This is MBC News 000.