Guatemalan authorities rescued 160 children and adolescents from the fundamentalist Jewish sect Lev Tahor in southeastern Guatemala on Friday following allegations of child abuse, including rape, prosecutors said.
"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," Nancy Paiz, a prosecutor at Guatemala's Prosecutor's Office Against Human Trafficking, said at a press conference.
Lev Tahor ("Pure Heart" in Hebrew) has faced multiple allegations of kidnapping, child marriage and physical abuse since it was founded in the 1980s.