A joint prosecution-police team investigating suspected collusion between politics and religion again raided the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, a nonmainstream religious sect, on Wednesday as part of a probe into its alleged ties to the main opposition People Power Party (PPP). Prosecutors and investigators from the team searched Shincheonji’s headquarters in Gwacheon, just south of Seoul, in the morning to seize additional data related to suspicions of church members’ collective affiliation with the PPP years ago. They already searched the Gwacheon headquarters and the residence of the church’s founder, Lee Man-hee, in January. Lee and others are suspected of forcing church followers to join the PPP with the aim of influencing the results of the party’s presidential primary in 2021 and the party’s candidate nominations for the 2024 general elections.
