Guatemala arrests US, Canadian Jewish sect members for child abuse

By AFP

Guatemalan authorities have arrested three Americans and a Canadian, alleged members of an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect under investigation for child sex abuse, the police and prosecutors said Wednesday.

The arrests late Tuesday followed a raid on a farm run by members of the Lev Tahor sect in Oratorio, southeast of Guatemala City, from where 160 children were rescued in December.

The raid, during which the skeleton of a minor was found, was based on allegations of forced pregnancy, mistreatment of minors and rape, according to the public prosecutor's office.

Lev Tahor, which practices an ultra-Orthodox form of Judaism in which women wear black tunics covering them from head to toe, have accused authorities of religious persecution.

Members of the sect settled in Guatemala in 2013. Authorities estimate that the community is made up of roughly 50 families from Guatemala, the United States and Canada.

After the December raid, relatives belonging to the sect broke into a care center trying to retrieve the children taken. The minors were recovered by authorities and placed under protection.

Police executing warrants issued by a Guatemalan court arrested US citizens Nissen Yehuda Malka, 27, and Yoel Goldman, 26, in the capital on Tuesday night.

American Chaim Malka, 24 and Canadian Dinkel Avrohom, 33, were handed over to Guatemala by authorities in Belize, to where they had attempted to flee, according to the prosecutor's office.

Three are accused of abuse of minors and Chaim Malka of human trafficking and forced pregnancy.

Interpol had also issued a red notice for the four, police said.

Two other US members of the sect, one of them believed to be a leader, were arrested in Guatemala on January 30 on allegations of forcing minors to marry.

A week earlier, police also detained an Israeli member of the sect wanted by Mexico for human trafficking.