Documentary record Bound by Fear
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Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Suwon, South Korea (offenses committed in Fiji) · 2019

Grace Road Church: founding pastor convicted after 'threshing floor' beatings and confinement of followers in Fiji

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

founding pastor of Grace Road Church, self-declared prophetic authority over an end-times relocation to Fiji

Organization

Grace Road Church (은혜로교회 / Grace Road Group)

Spiritual nexus

Followers had relocated their lives to a closed compound in Fiji under Shin's doctrine that she alone knew the timing of an apocalyptic judgment on South Korea. Inside that closed system, passports were confiscated and 'threshing floor' beatings — presented as expelling evil spirits — were carried out by and at the direction of the pastor herself; courts found the assaults and confinement were organized through her role as founder and spiritual leader, not incidental church-adjacent violence.

  • Pastoral or clerical authority
  • Threatened spiritual consequence
  • Exorcism or deliverance
  • Institutional obedience or isolation

Evidence structure

Proceedings

  1. 2019-07-30 · trial conviction

    Suwon District Court, South Korea. Shin Ok-ju convicted on charges including special assault, special confinement, fraud, and child abuse/neglect arising from conduct against followers relocated to Fiji; sentenced to 6 years.

  2. 2019-11-05 · appeal

    Suwon District Court / appellate division, South Korea. Sentence increased to 7 years; suspended sentences of two co-defendant accomplices revoked and converted to actual prison terms.

  3. Date in cited record · remand appeal (second cycle, reconsidered charges)

    Seoul High Court, South Korea. Court reduced and re-sentenced Shin Ok-ju to 4 years and 6 months alongside custodial sentences for five co-defendant members in January 2025; disposition affirmed a custodial conviction, not an acquittal. Exact day not confirmed in sourcing located this pass; month-level date omitted per schema rule rather than entered as a partial date.

Documented coercion mechanisms

  • doctrine of imminent apocalypse used to justify relocation and total obedience
  • 'taljak-madang' (threshing floor) ritual beatings framed as exorcising evil spirits
  • passport confiscation of roughly 400 followers relocated to Fiji
  • ordering family members to beat one another 100-200 times with sticks or belts

Primary record

Sources

international newspaper court reporting verdict and sentencing report 'South Korean "cult" leader gets six years for beating followers in Fiji', Global News (AP), 30 Jul. 2019.

Reports the Suwon District Court's July 30, 2019 conviction of Shin Ok-ju on charges of joint injury, special assault, special confinement, fraud, and child abuse/neglect tied to conduct against Grace Road followers relocated to Fiji.

investigative journalism background and status report 'US Aid to Fiji at Risk Over Impunity for Doomsday Cult', OCCRP, 2025.

Describes the 2019/2020 South Korean conviction history and the separate, still-pending Fiji police investigation files sent to the ODPP in 2024-2025 over forced labour and trafficking allegations involving Grace Road members in Fiji.

in language specialist press verdict report '[종합]은혜로교회 신옥주, 추가 징역 4년 6개월 확정' (Hyundae Jongkyo / Modern Religion), 2025. Korean: reports the reconsidered-charge sentence of 4 years 6 months for Shin Ok-ju becoming final.

Korean-language religious-affairs press report confirming the January 2025 Seoul High Court re-sentencing of Shin Ok-ju to 4 years 6 months, tied to child abuse and assault under the 'taljak-madang' (threshing floor) doctrine.

Related record

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