SHENYANG - Five members of the cult organization Quannengshen have been sentenced to two or three years in prison for spreading the cult, a court in Northeast China's Liaoning province said on Saturday.

The defendants, who live in the city of Panjin, were found guilty of undermining the implementation of laws by making use of cult organizations, said the Intermediate People's Court in Panjin.

The court said the five people propagated the cult, recruited believers and spread rumors after Quannengshen was announced a cult.

Hundreds of video discs and books promoting the cult were found in their possession.

Quannengshen grabbed national headlines last year with videos going viral showing five of its members beating a woman to death at a McDonald's in the eastern city of Zhaoyuan, condemning her as an "evil spirit" as she refused to give them her cellphone number for recruitment purposes.