Korean Officials of Religious Sect Arrested 🚓

[Anchor Lead]
South Korean prosecutors Wednesday arrested three officials of a religious sect blamed for causing a massive infection cluster at the early stage of the COVID-19 outbreak. They are facing the charges of hindering quarantine efforts to curb the spread of the virus. The court issued the arrest warrants, citing flight risk and possible evidence destruction.
[Pkg]
A court hearing was held to review arrest warrants for five Shincheonji Church officials. The Suwon District Court arrested 3 of them, after charges were confirmed. The court also cited flight risk and potential to destroy evidence. The officials are accused of handing in false documents to quarantine authorities about the number of Shincheonji followers in February, when one of the sect's churches in Daegu became the epicenter of COVID-19 infections. In the court hearing, prosecutors insisted the officials intentionally left out some information, despite health authorities' requests to submit the full list of worshipers. The church is suspected of discarding documents and destroying other evidence in preparations for investigations and searches. It is also accused of deleting travel logs of followers who came from the Chinese city of Wuhan to visit local churches. But Shincheonji officials deny the charge of intentional evidence destruction. They refuted prosecutors' accusation, claiming they handed in all information as requested by quarantine authorities and material omission was unintentional if there was any.
[Soundbite] LEE MAN-HEE(SHINCHEONJI CHURCH LEADER (MAR. 2)) : "A lot of infections were traced back to our churches, although it was not intended. But we did our utmost to comply with authorities' requests in battling the outbreak."
Previously, the Daegu Metropolitan Police Agency arrested two Shincheonji officials on charges of intentionally scaling back the list of followers needed for a COVID-19 epidemiological investigation. The court turned down the request to issue arrest warra