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| Jerusalem: Sadistic Leader of Polygamous Cult Convicted
Religion News Blog
September 11, 2013
http://www.religionnewsblog.com/27404/jerusalem-sadistic-leader-of-polygamous-cult-convicted
ReligionNewsBlog.com — The sadistic leader of a cult that was based in Jerusalem and the Tiberias region of Israel has been found guilty of a range of crimes, including physically-, mentally-, and sexually abusing six women and dozens of children.
The cult was busted in August 2011, based on report from a young woman who, in May that year, busted in August 2011, based on the report of a woman who called the Israel Center for Cult Victims [Hebrew-language website. English version via Google Translate].
YNetNews says
A gag order has been placed on the full indictment in a bid to prevent the identification of the dozens of young children and their mothers. [...]
According to the indictment, D. saw himself as the successor of a well-known figure from his Hasidic movement and the person chosen to distribute his doctrine in the world. He got more and more women to join his cult by convincing them of his “powers.”
Once these women fell into his trap, his pleasant behavior was replaced with violence, abuse and contempt – which moved on to the next generation when the children were born.
According to Haaretz, the judges in the case wrote that D., 58, “caused his wives to believe that their behavior and thoughts harmed not only him, but also the salvation of the nation of Israel.”
The women were under his influence to such an extend that they developed deep feelings of guilt and self-loathing, and ” they could atone only by confessing to him and undergoing suitable punishments.”
D.’s brutal punishments, to which some of the children were subjected as well, included rape, sodomy, electric shocks, whippings, starvation and being imprisoned naked in a storage shed.
The verdict says:
The women, who believed with perfect faith that the defendant sought to help them and redeem the nation of Israel, desperately sought to please him and gave themselves over completely to his caprices. They fully accepted, and sometimes even initiated, the punishments imposed on them.
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