A Chinese court has sentenced to death a man it said was a follower of the banned Falun Gong spiritual sect for killing 16 people with rat poison, state television reported on Wednesday. Chen Fuzhao was sentenced in the coastal city of Wenzhou, accused of killing 15 beggars by pouring a potent banned rat poison into drinks, it said. He also dumped poison into drinking water at a temple, which killed one woman, it said.
It did not say if Chen, a medical worker who had practiced Falun Gong since 1996, had already been executed.
The report said Chen's spirit was controlled by Falun Gong, which Beijing has branded an "evil cult," and that he killed the beggars to increase his spiritual strength.
Falun Gong practices a mixture of Taoism, Buddhism traditional Chinese breathing exercises and the beliefs of its U.S.-based founder, Li Hongzhi.
China outlawed the group in 1999 after thousands of adherents besieged the central leadership compound in Beijing to demand official recognition of their faith.
The group has been all but snuffed out in public in China in a relentless and often brutal crackdown.