PERU
Reuters
LIMA | BY MITRA TAJ
Peru’s attorney general has launched an investigation to determine whether the founder and former head of an elite Catholic society sexually and physically abused children and former members of the secretive group.
The two-month inquiry into Luis Fernando Figari follows the publication of a book by an investigative journalist, in which three unidentified former members of Sodalitium Christianae Vitae accuse Figari of rape and molestation when they were boys. Others, out of 30 interviewed for the book, describe being brainwashed and physically abused.
Sodalitium said Figari lives in Rome and has denied all accusations. Figari could not be located for comment.
But the organization said the accounts in the book were plausible. “It pains and shames us that acts like that could have been committed by Luis Fernando Figari,” Sodalitium said.
“A corresponding investigation is being opened and if it is found necessary to bring him here that will be done,” Attorney General Pablo Sanchez said.
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