A cult leader in Kenya has been charged with murder after more than 400 bodies were found buried in shallow graves in a remote forest in the east of the country.
Survivors and victims’ families have said Paul Mackenzie urged followers to fast in order to “go see Jesus”.
He and 29 others pleaded not guilty in a court in the coastal town of Malindi.
Mackenzie has already been charged with committing acts of terror, child cruelty and torture, which he denied.
Police and prosecutors allege that apart from starvation, some victims may have been strangled, suffocated or beaten to death using blunt objects.
The 30 accused have been charged with murdering 191 people.
The cult preached against modern medicine and urged members not to vaccinate children.
Mackenzie and his alleged associates have been in police custody since last April when he surrendered to the authorities following the discovery of bodies in the forest.
They denied forcing anyone to starve. At one point, Mackenzie complained to the court that police had denied him food while he was being held.
A BBC analysis of Mackenzie’s sermons on video do not show him directly ordering people to fast, but there are many references to followers sacrificing what they hold dear, including their lives.
But when it comes to the more than 400 bodies in the morgue only 39 have been matched with families through DNA testing.
Other relatives are still enduring an agonising wait
