Exorcism victims would not accept Christ
Site of the killings
The alleged religious cult killers of seven people during exorcism rites including children aged one to nine whose tortured bodies were found in a grave in El Terrón will appear in court on Friday, January 17.
The location of the bodies was revealed, after a complaint of abuse against a sect that performed religious rites and practiced exorcisms of indigenous people of the Ngäbe Buglé ethnic group.
The murders would have been carried out at night between Saturday 11 and Sunday 12 of this month, say police reports. The victims were beaten with bibles and planks, tortured and strangled according to witnesses.
A witness told TVN News that the mother of a murdered girl told him that she did not oppose the killings because the “shepherds” had confirmed, "that the child had not accepted Christ." The deaths and abuses would have occurred within a wide hut the “church” of the sect, according to TVN News images.
Air and Sea personnel (Senan) rescued 14 victims, including seven minors and two pregnant women who were taken by helicopter to a hospital in Santiago.
Six people who were identified as victims of torture were part of the family of a second corporal of the National Polic,e Ananías González, according to an official note from the Ministry of Securit
he president of the National Coordinator of Indigenous Peoples of Panama (COONAPIP), Marco Guerra, expressed dismay and sadness over the events in the Ngäbe Buglé Comarca.
"One of the problems that we have in the region is the little rigor that exists when it comes to ensuring the safety of the town when all kinds of religious groups and NGOs arrive that nobody investigates or filters the information about their true intentions and interests, affecting a people as vulnerable as ours, "he said..
