A South Korean cult leader has been arrested after she allegedly confiscated the passports of 400 of her worshippers, subjected them to ritual beatings, and left them stranded in Fiji.

Shin Ok-ju was arrested at South Korea’s Incheon International Airport, along with three other leaders of Grace Road Church, reports The Korean Times.

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Shin’s worshippers started following her to Fiji in 2014 because she predicted a famine on the Korean peninsula. Once they arrived, their passports were reportedly seized and a selected group of “guardians” prevented them from leaving.

In order to avoid punishment from God, the group were apparently forced to perform ritual beatings on each other. A father was once made to hit his son more than 100 times, and in another instance a congregant was left with lasting brain damage.

The alarm was raised after five followers managed to escape the cult and notify South Korean authorities.

In 2014 Shin was sued for US$6 million by a 27-year-old Brooklyn man who had to have his leg amputated after Shin attempted to cure his schizophrenia with a prayer ritual which involved him being bound tightly with duct-tape, reports the New York Daily News.

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