Nine members of the Light of the World, an Angolan religious sect linked to police killings last week, were given two years in prison for resisting arrest, according to state-run Televisao Publica de Angola.

Two other members of the religious group in Bie province south of the capital, Luanda, were given one-year sentences, government prosecutor Eugenio Saneta told the channel. Police also confiscated three cars, two motorcycles, knives, machetes and shovels, he said.

The offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist Church led by Jose Julino Kalupeteka is accused of murdering eight policemen in Huambo and Benguela provinces on April 16.

Security forces responded by using helicopters to hunt and kill more than 200 members of the sect, Angolan opposition party the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola said on its website. Police have declined to comment.