Guatemala finds children taken by Jewish sect after abuse investigation

The Jewish sect, Lev Tahor, has accused Guatemala authorities of religious persecution.

Guatemalan authorities have recovered several children taken by members of an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect who had broken into a care centre where they were being held.

Officials said that members of the Lev Tahor sect had entered the shelter on Sunday in an effort to take back 160 minors who had been taken from the sect’s compound on Friday in a police raid. Authorities accuse the sect of child sexual abuse.

Some of the children were found on Sunday, while others were recovered early on Monday, according to the AFP news agency.

The farm compound in Oratoria, southwest of Guatemala City, was raided on Friday by authorities to rescue children and adolescents who “were allegedly being abused by a member of the Lev Tahor sect”, said Minister of the Interior Francisco Jimenez.

Nancy Paiz, a prosecutor at Guatemala’s Prosecutor’s Office Against Human Trafficking, said at a news conference : “Based on the statements of the complainants, the evidence obtained, and the medical examinations, it was possible to establish that there are forms of human trafficking against these minors, such as forced marriage, abuse and related crimes.”