by Massimo Introvigne — South Korea’s Minister of Justice, Jeong Seong-ho, has published an extraordinary Facebook post confirming what many feared. A ninety-five-year-old man, Shincheonji’s Chairman Lee Manhee, is being held in detention on accusations that involve no violence and no risk of escape. The alleged crime is a supposed violation of the principle of separation of religion and state.

Lee Man-hee, the leader of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, widely known as Chairman Lee, has been arrested today on accusations that many consider deeply disproportionate to the case at hand. Whatever the final legal outcome, the image itself is deeply concerning: an elderly faith leader facing detention on the basis of charges that appear, to many observers, laughable in a country long regarded as a democracy. As Massimo Introvigne’s analysis suggests, this moment should prompt reflection on how, at a time when religious freedom is already under sustained pressure, the case risks crossing a line that should never have been approached in the first place in a democratic society.art

By Alessandro Amicarelli — I first took an interest in Prosecutor Fernando Arrigo and his team because of their prosecution verging on obsession of the Russian dissident and spiritual teacher Konstantin Rudnev, whom they accuse of being a “cult” leader. As I continued examining the case, I discovered that Arrigo displays a similar fixation in the proceedings against the Mapuche leader Facundo Jones Huala. Argentine media report that a third case has raised comparable concerns about his conduct. This is the case of Franco Casco.

Japan’s treatment of the Unification Church signals and reinforces a broader erosion of religious freedom across the region. The concern is not confined to Japan alone: in South Korea, the arrest today of Chairman Lee, the 95-year-old leader of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, on what appear to be unreasonable and politically charged accusations raises serious questions about the direction in which Seoul is heading. Likewise, in Argentina, Konstantin Rudnev remains in detention on allegations that are not merely weak but, critics argue, entirely void, a development that sits uneasily with a country founded on the rule of law and makes it look, at least in this case, uncomfortably similar to more authoritarian systems in the region.