JERUSALEM: Israel today indicted a cult leader on a myriad of charges of enslaving and sexually abusing about 21 “wives” and the dozens of children he had with them. Goel Ratzon, 59, is accused of having taken “control over the lives” of the women since the early 1990s, holding them in a number of apartments in the Tel Aviv area.

Among the charges against him are rape, enslavement and indecent assault. “The defendant entrapped the women in a social group that took the form of a pseudo-family evolving around the cult of himself,” according to the indictment submitted to a Tel Aviv court. Prosecutors say Ratzon created an image of himself as someone who had magical powers with which he could heal or hurt the women, whom he raped and sexually abused and who mothered his children.

“The defendant treated the women as if they were his property,” the indictment said. “Through this total control the defendant led the women to completely scrap their character and devote their existence to satisfy his needs.” The long-haired man is also accused of raping his daughters.