Moon Freed After Serving 11 Months of Prison Term : Unification Church Leader, Given 18-Month Sentence for Tax Evasion, Must Now Report to Halfway House

The Rev. Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Unification Church, was released to a halfway house program Thursday after serving 11 months of his 18-month federal prison sentence for tax evasion.

Moon, 65, will fulfill his church duties by day but must report each night until mid-August to the Oxford Project halfway house in Brooklyn, officials said.

The Korean industrialist and evangelist spent the day Thursday at his estate in Irvington, N.Y., providing “religious reflections” to his wife, their 12 children and church leaders, spokeswoman Joy Garratt said.

Medium-Security Camp

Moon was imprisoned at the medium-security camp of the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Conn., in July, 1984, after exhausting appeals of his 1982 tax evasion conviction. He did not speak to reporters outside the prison when he was released.

“He seemed pleased” to be free, prison spokesman Jeff Garbow said. “His family seemed pleased.”

Mose Durst, president of the 3-million-member Unification Church, said at a news conference that the prison sentence was “an offering to God” and that Moon had “washed floors and served joyfully.”

Moon spent his term assigned to the prison kitchen and did duty cleaning toilets. He won awards for the cleanliness of his cell, Durst said.

Imprisonment Assailed

Moon’s imprisonment had been assailed by leaders of many religions.

“We are alarmed by the government’s continuing attacks against religion in America,” said Don Sills, president of the Coalition for Religious Freedom in Washington.

“What has happened to Rev. Moon can now happen to any minister who seeks to carry out the will of God as it has been revealed to him. The so-called justice meted out to Rev. Moon will go down as a blot on the pages of American history.”