Panama | Three suspected members of a sect accused of kidnapping six children, three of whom are missing, have been arrested in an indigenous area, the Panama prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Two men and a woman, accused of “offenses against individual freedom, sexual offense and ill-treatment of minors”, were arrested on Sunday in the community of Llano Amador, in the indigenous Ngabe Bugle zone, difficult to access, in the district of Nurum (350 km west of the capital), said the prosecution.
The perpetrators of the kidnappings are “suspected members of a religious group” from the region of Llano Amador, according to the same source. For the Minister of the Interior Juan Pino, “a possible sect is involved”.
Three minors aged 14, 10 and three months, were able to be recovered. Three other children, whose ages have not been specified, are still wanted.
The released minors were transported to a police station where their state of health will be assessed.
In January, members of a religious sect in Panama killed six children and a pregnant woman during a rite celebrated in the village of Altos del Terron, also of the indigenous Ngabe Bugle community.
The bodies of the victims, tied up and in an advanced state of decomposition had been discovered in the mass grave of a cemetery.