"The Falun Gong cult misled me into killing my beloved uncle," lamented Qiu Defeng, convicted of murder in the capital of south China's Hainan Province.

On December 11, 2001, 29-year-old Qiu axed to death his uncle, Qiu Junxian, who had brought him up and financed his university education.

Influenced by a speech delivered by Falun Gong leader Li Hongzhi, Qiu Defeng started to practice Falun Gong in 1994 when he was following a course of higher education in east China's Anhui Province.

Since then, Qiu's devotion to the Falun Gong cult never wavered until he was arrested for murdering his uncle last year.

On the day of the crime, Qiu had accused his 68-year-old uncle of bewitching him and raged over his uncle's failure to answer the accusation.

Qiu Defeng then hacked at his uncle with a kitchen knife and set his uncle's house on fire. Police arrested Qiu on the site where he was preparing to burn his uncle's body.

"I suspected that my uncle was plotting to murder me and could not control myself when thinking about a Falun Gong cult lecture which summons followers to endure until there is no need to," said Qiu, recalling his crime.

Before committing the murder, Qiu would practice Falun Gong for four hours a day and claimed to have opened the "heavenly eye," which can see what others cannot see and which can distinguish people who want to cause harm.

As a practicing cult follower, Qiu had attempted to persuade people to believe that Falun Gong is good for health and that the leader Li Hongzhi is a good person, recalled Qiu Xinshi, murderer Qiu's neighbor.

A large amount of Falun Gong books, pictures, disks and items were found in Qiu's house after the murder, according to police officer Yu Jianhua.

"Falun Gong is definitely a cult which destroyed my trust in other people, including my uncle, and led me to commit such an appalling act," said Qiu, sobering up from his obsession with the Falun Gong cult.

"The cult propaganda said that people can go to heaven in a state of transcendence after death. This is pure nonsense. I do not believe in the cult any more," said Qiu, regretfully accusing the Falun Gong Cult for duping him into carrying out a crime.

(People's Daily January 25, 2002)