Three members of the “Ithaca” cult were charged with the severe abuse of their children, according to an indictment submitted to the Peta Tikvah District court on Sunday.
Sect leader Shay Abramov took his own life while in custody in the Hadarim detention center, just four days after being arrested for the alleged abuse.
A man suspected of being a cult leader and encouraging a teacher to starve and beat her young son committed suicide in his prison cell at the Hadarim Prison in the Sharon area on Friday night.
He confessed tot the allegations against him, yet he later retracted his confession and said that police had beaten him.
The Ramle Magistrate’s Court on Thursday extended by seven days the remand of a man suspected of physically abusing the children of parents who sought out his assistance, and teaching these parents to use the same violence as part of a system of “extreme discipline.”
The affair first came to light following the arrest two weeks ago of a teacher from Netanya accused of beating and starving her 10-year-old son.
The cult was followed by the Netanya teacher arrested two weeks ago for abusing her children and starving them.
Police are aware of dozens of children who were the victims of the system of discipline taught by Abramov.
An Israeli teacher who was arrested Friday on suspicion of abusing her 10-year-old son is a member of a cult which preaches for stern disciplining methods outside the formal education system.
A man who is familiar with the cult said the suspect is known there as “the prophet” and has described the group’s leader as “the seculars’ Elior Chen — a reference to a sadistic cult leader currently on trial.