French Talmud school staff charged with aggravated violence

Seven staff members of an ultra-orthodox Jewish religious school Beth Yossef have been charged with "aggravated violence".

They were charged with various offences relating to the mistreatment of pupils and placed under judicial supervision, prosecutor Laureline Peyrefitte said on Saturday.

The Beth Yossef school in Bussieres, around 60 kilometres (35 miles) east of the capital Paris, had been hosting around 60 children aged 13-18.

The children included "many underage American and Israeli children," who did not speak French and lived "in abusive conditions", Peyrefitte had said earlier this week.

The children allegedly suffered "being locked up, confiscation of their identity documents, poor conditions, acts of abuse, lack of access to education and healthcare, and no possibility of returning to their families".

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Years of abuse

French social services had removed 42 pupils from the school this week to be placed in temporary care upon allegations of years of abuse.

To relatives, "it seemed like the Harry Potter school, out in the green spaces," said Rivka Azoulay, 26, whose 13-year-old brother had started at Beth Yossef just last week.

Police said they had taken 17 members in staff in for questioning.

Site managers, teaching staff, supervisors had "generally denied the facts even if some were able to describe acts like slaps and blows", Peyrefitte said.

An American boy escaped from the school in July and sought shelter at the US embassy in Paris.

Others followed, and Israeli public television has been investigating the school for months.

Some of the children have already been returned to their parents.

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