Keystone-SDA
Several children, kidnapped by members of the ultra-Orthodox Jewish sect Lev Tahor from where they were placed by Guatemala's social services, were recovered and placed under judicial protection on Monday, the prosecutor's office said.
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December 23, 2024 – 8:37 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) They are part of a group of 160 children and adolescents rescued Friday after a police raid on the sect's farm in Oratorio, about 60 km southeast of the capital, as part of an investigation into suspicions forced pregnancies, rapes and other abuses.
On Sunday, around a hundred members of the group Lev Tahor (“Pure Heart” in Hebrew) attempted to forcibly take back the placed children, massing in front of the center of the capital Guatemala where they were housed to demand their return.
In the afternoon, some even “barged” inside by “forcing the door”, and “kidnapped” several children, the nation's attorney general explained on X.
Some children then escaped “with the help of adults”, according to the Social Affairs Secretariat, and remained untraceable for several hours. The special “alert” for the search for missing minors has been activated by the authorities.
At the cost of clashes with adult members of the sect, the police and the administration finally recovered all the children the next morning, noted an AFP photographer. They were on a nearby street with adult followers of Lev Tahor.
According to the public prosecutor responsible for the protection of minors, their transfer to a court was ordered by a judge, in order to place them under child protection measures.
“Everything was done with respect for human rights,” assured the prosecutor’s office in a press release, without specifying the number of children concerned. The latter were brought back to the center where they had been since Friday.
Suspicions of human trafficking
Lev Tahor has been based in Guatemala since 2013. Founded in the 1980s, it practices an ultra-orthodox form of Judaism, according to which women must wear black tunics that cover them from head to toe.
The group moved to Oratorio in 2016 after several police raids on its premises. At the time, the authorities indicated that they were acting at the request of Israel, whose police were looking for a missing minor.
In 2014, the sect was expelled from a Mayan locality due to conflicts with locals.
The search of Lev Tahor's property in Oratorio was motivated by suspicions of human trafficking “in the form of forced pregnancies, child abuse and rape,” according to prosecutor Dimas Jiménez.
The searches led to the discovery of the presumed bones of a minor, the prosecution said.
In October, authorities had already raided the farm to investigate the state of health of the miners, after a first unsuccessful attempt in August.
The sect, for its part, considers itself the victim of “religious persecution”.
“The authorities have carried out a very important investigation here in Guatemala,” criticized Uriel Goldman, a representative of the families, on Sunday. According to him, Lev Tahor is the target of “lies” and “false denunciations”.
“There is external pressure (to) destroy the community,” which includes some 50 families, mainly from Guatemala, the United States and Canada, he assured.
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