Jerusalem cult leader arrested for allegedly abusing women, children

A Jerusalem man is under arrest today on suspicion of operating a cult that kept dozens of people under his absolute authority.

Police say he is being investigated for a wide variety of alleged crimes, including sexual assault, child abuse and neglect, and theft, all of which took place at the group’s compound in Jerusalem’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhood of Geula, at a site listed as the Be’er Miriam girls’ seminary.

The man, in his sixties, was arrested in 2015 on similar charges, but officials were forced to let him go after several women in his group testified in his favor.

The arrests today include the man and eight of the women who live in the compound and were allegedly accomplices in the abuse.

The man is believed to have exercised “absolute control” over some 50 women and an unspecified number of children, some of whom were kept in isolation, police say.

The arrest raid this morning was led by police, but included social workers, experts at cults, medical staff and firefighters and city engineers who began a detailed safety assessment of the dilapidated compound.