The elderly leader of a secretive religious sect at the centre of South Korea's early coronavirus outbreak was not guilty of hindering the government's virus prevention efforts, a district court ruled.

But Lee Man-hee was convicted of embezzling billions of won from his organisation and given a suspended prison sentence.

The Shincheonji Church of Jesus, which is often condemned as a cult, was at the centre of huge controversy early last year when it accounted for more than half of South Korea's coronavirus cases.

At the time, the country was enduring one of the worst early outbreaks of the disease outside China, but later largely brought it under control with widespread testing and tracing, AFP reported.

Shuncheonji's leader Lee, 89, was taken into custody in August and accused of giving health authorities inaccurate records of church gatherings and false lists of its members.