The European Academy of Religion (EuARe) and other international scholars are pressing the South Korean government to release Lee Man-hee, the 95-year-old Chairman of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus, who has been detained since June 24 on charges related to alleged violations of the Political Parties Act. The Joint Police–Prosecution Investigation Headquarters indicted Lee on June 29, accusing him of directing the mass registration of approximately 50,000 church members into a political party between July 2021 and January 2024. Shincheonji Church has countered that members freely participated in political activities and that both Lee and the church cooperated fully with the investigation, expressing regret that detaining a 95-year-old amounts to physical punishment.
During the EuARe's Ninth Annual Conference in Rome on July 3, scholars addressed the issue in a session titled "Shincheonji, a Korean New Religion in Global Context." Dr. Massimo Introvigne, a sociologist of religion and founder of the Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR), stated, "In all European Union countries, legislation mandates that those older than 80 should only exceptionally be put in jail. Here, there are no blood crimes, and the accusations are violations of electoral law." He added that the detention violates the United Nations' Mandela Rules, which limit preliminary detention for the elderly, calling it "an unmitigated scandal which hides a political and religious vendetta." Eric Roux, president of the European Interreligious Forum for Religious Freedom (EIFRF), echoed these sentiments, saying, "A man of 95 years old being put in jail is not something you can reconcile with respecting human dignity."
Human rights lawyer Alessandro Amicarelli, chairman of the European Federation for Freedom of Belief (FOB), expressed shock given South Korea's democratic tradition. "I always considered South Korea a true democracy where human rights are upheld. Unfortunately, what's happening now is truly shocking. We cannot accept that a religious leader at age 95 has to be under this kind of pressure. It looks like South Korea is departing from its own Constitution."
International human rights organizations have also weighed in. United for Human Rights and Coordination des Associations et des Particuliers pour la Liberté de Conscience (CAP LC) submitted a joint statement to the 62nd session of the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on May 25 (A/HRC/62/NGO/236), assessing that the situation has intensified and that framing party registration as "religion-politics collusion" is inconsistent with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The statement noted that a December 2025 presidential order created a joint task force explicitly targeting Shincheonji and that senior officials publicly referred to the church as a "criminal organization," incompatible with the presumption of innocence. The organizations urged the South Korean government to reaffirm its commitment to freedom of religion and state neutrality.
Shincheonji Church emphasized that the detention has become an international human rights issue, with growing support and petitions from prominent figures. "The prompt release of Chairman Lee is a matter of safeguarding freedom of religion and human rights, which are core values of democracy," the church stated.
