Europe 1 with AFP 4:51 p.m., February 05, 2022
About forty students from the Talmudic school of Bussières, in Seine-et-Marne, are now supported by child welfare after the arrest of the officials of this ultra-Orthodox establishment flirting with drift sectarian and suspected of abuse for "years", according to several sources.
Seven members of an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community managing a Talmudic school in Seine-et-Marne have been indicted for "aggravated violence" and placed under judicial supervision, suspected of mistreatment of underage students, we learned Saturday with the prosecutor of Meaux.
17 in custody
They were indicted on Friday evening in particular for "willful violence on vulnerable people", "abuse of the vulnerability of a person placed in a situation of psychological subjection" or even "accommodation conditions contrary to dignity".
While the prosecution had requested the indictment for "organized kidnapping", they were placed under the status of assisted witness for this count, said prosecutor Laureline Peyrefitte.
Located in Bussières, a village of 500 inhabitants 60 kilometers east of Paris, the yeshiva Beth Yossef, renowned for its strict methods, welcomed around sixty students, between 13 and 18 years old, mostly of Israeli nationality but also of American, Belgian, Romanian or Irish nationality, "not declared to be in school", specified the prosecutor. The establishment's lawyers, Me Philippe Ohayon and Dan Mimran, stressed on Saturday that "the criminal qualification of sequestration was not retained". This "invalidates the thesis of sectarian excesses and removes all credibility from the quasi-military operation carried out against this yeshiva", argued to AFP Me Ohayon.
On Monday, 17 members of this ultra-Orthodox Jewish community were taken into custody during an operation that mobilized 130 gendarmes.
Site managers, teaching staff, supervisors, they "generally denied the facts even if some were able to describe acts like slaps and blows", according to the prosecutor.
Some students "have been able to confirm without always criticizing them acts of physical and psychological violence", she added.
"Passport confiscated", access to "very limited" care
"According to their statements, they were totally isolated from the outside world with the exception of telephone contact with their parents under authorization", described the magistrate to the press on Friday.
"Their passport was confiscated", they were "very limited in their access to care" and lived "in unsanitary housing conditions".
Supported by social assistance for children in Seine-et-Marne, some of the minors were to be picked up by their parents this weekend, according to the department.
For the others, care will continue in conjunction with the Red Cross.
From July to December 2021, three students had escaped from the yeshiva, speeding up the investigation.