Two men allegedly extorted hundreds of dollars from villagers in East Timor by persuading them to join a religious sect after parading two people they claimed were Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, prosecutors and U.N. officials said Sunday.
The men were arrested last week in southern Suai town, said state prosecutor Amandio de Sa Benvides.
The pair, identified only by their initials D.B. and M.S., are due to appear in court later this month on extortion charges, he said.
He said the men worked alongside a man and woman who posed as Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary to impress the villagers, most of whom are poor and have little formal education.
Most of East Timor's 800,000 people are Roman Catholic.
The men then demanded the villagers pay US$16 each to join a group that was allegedly a sect of the Roman Catholic Church. Its name was not known. They threatened the villagers with violence if they didn't pay up, Sa Benvides said.
"The villagers were terrorized and scared," Sa Benvides told The Associated Press. "Although they lived on less than a dollar a day, they tried to find the money."
He said the two men had collected hundreds of dollars.
Authorities questioned the man and woman who posed as Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, but released them because they were 'unwitting accomplices,' the prosecutor said.
U.N. spokeswoman Marcia Poole said police arrested the men after hearing of their activities from a local priest.
The United Nations governed East Timor from 1999 when it seceded from Indonesia until May last year, when the half-island territory became the world's newest nation. U.N. officials still assist in running the country.
There have been several instances of extortion and violence in outlying districts of East Timor in recent months, raising fears the country may descend into lawlessness.