From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, January 15, 2025
Lev Tahor member arrested in Guatemala as crackdown on extremist group continues
Luke Tress is The Times of Israel's New York correspondent.
A member of Lev Tahor, an extremist Jewish sect based in Guatemala, is arrested in neighboring El Salvador.
Elazar Rompler, who has Israeli citizenship, is being held in detention ahead of an expected extradition to Israel, El Salvador’s attorney general office says in a statement.
Rompler is accused of abusing students between 2009 and 2011, the statement says.
The Jerusalem District Court indicted Rompler for child abuse in 2020.
Another member of the group, Jonathan Emmanuel Cardona Castillo, was arrested by police in El Salvador earlier this month on suspicion of human trafficking, rape and abuse of minors. Castillo had attempted to cross the border from Guatemala into El Salvador near the town of Ahuachapán, where he was apprehended.
Authorities in Guatemala raided the group’s compound last month due to reports of human trafficking. Police removed women and children from the compound and have been holding them in a detention facility since then.
The Times of Israel Community.