UKRAINE: GREAT WHITE BROTHERHOOD CULT: TRIAL BEGINS

(1 Mar 1995) Russian, Nat The trial of the leaders of the Great White Brotherhood cult began in Kiev Wednesday, more than a year after hundreds of cult followers threatened to commit mass suicide. Yuri Kryvonohov and his wife Maria Tsvygun, the selfstyled messiah of the cult, are accused of a number of charges ranging from organizing civic unrest to violating state property. The trial of the two cult leaders took place in a packed courtroom just metres away from St. Sofia s Square, where cult followers used to meet before the couple s arrest in November 1993. Maria Tsvygun, known to cult members as Maria Devi Christos, the living god, was a former communist youth leader and journalist. She claims the cult has a following of 144, 000 across the former Soviet Union, as well as support in many Eastern European countries. Authorities expect the couple of giving mindaltering drugs to their followers many of whom left home to join the cult.