Sao Paulo, Brazil – Interpol suspects that the Jewish community in Sao Paulo hid an an ultra-Orthodox rabbi suspected of seriously abusing Jerusalem children, one of whom is in a vegetative state.
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Local police arrested Rabbi Elior Chen Wednesday on a street corner in the Bom Retiro neighborhood after conducting an extensive search through the Jewish neighborhood.
“Apparently he was being protected by the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Sao Paulo, who supposedly didn’t know about the accusations against him in Israel,” said Menoti Barros de Oliveira, the Interpol sheriff in Sao Paulo. “He was found alone, in the street of Julio Conceicao, so we think he was already separated from his peers.”
Chen is considered the spiritual leader of a Jerusalem sect that was found to have abused young children, two of whom, aged 3 and 4, were hospitalized in March in critical condition.
On Wednesday, Chen was reported to have turned himself over to the Brazilian police. Later in the day, however, Sao Paulo police informed their counterparts in Israel that he had not turned himself in, but was arrested.
Chen’s lawyer Ariel Atari denied reports on Wednesday that Chen had been arrested and insisted he had turned himself in. “When Elior Chen arrived at the Sao Paulo police department in the morning, he threw police into great confusion. None of them expected him to turn himself in,” Atari said.
“Israeli police did not ask the Brazilian police to carry out an extensive search for him,” said Moti Edri, a police official in Jerusalem. “It was the Brazilian police’s own initiative, undertaken due to a similar case of child abuse there recently.”
Police sources say Chen’s extradition is currently awaiting approval by the Brazilian Supreme Court. They expect him to be extradited to Israel within a few weeks.
Brazilian Federal Police released a communique Wednesday to the Jewish community in Sao Paulo informing them of the serious offenses Chen allegedly committed. “Elior Noam Chen, also known as Eliyahu Abuhatzeira, frequented a synagogue in Bom Retiro and we’re sure that Sao Paulo’s Israeli community, upon learning of the torture cases, alerted the religious representatives of the city and prohibited the community to cover for the fugitive,” the statement said.
Al tistakel be’pnai rasha.
I really don’t want to paskin dinei nefoshos, but I would think that a person who has done such atrocious things to children is considered a rodef and we have an obligation to stop a rodef in any way possible. Giving him to authorities would not be considered as mesira.
To Anon 10:00,
Wow, that was a brilliant psak!!! How many seforim did you have to look through to get to this massive chiddush?
The fact is in the perek there is a posik “Al tistakel b’kankan aley ma yesh bo” . Today automatically a strajmel and peias with a capote makes you a yichus but apparently not a mensch.
This man is simply sick. VERY sick. VERY VERY Sick. Sickness can, and does, occur in every group including ours. The biggest shame was that gullible people became his followers. They should have gotten him help, instead they practiced what he preached. The results were tragic.
Better education for our young married couples, and for all parents, MAY have helped prevent others from believing his insanity.
But calling a sick person like this a rasha, well, I am not sure if it applies. He needs psychiatric care, serious psychiatric care.
No matter how tragic the results of his insanity are, we should be able to find a molecule of feelings for this fellow very sick Jew.
To Anon. 1:00pm..
By any chance are you his defence lawyer? Cause it sounds like you are saying he should plead innocent for reasons of insanity.
Hey may be “sick, very very sick”, but he is also very evil! He doesn’t deserve our pity.
Ain adam choyte elah im cain nichnas bo ruach shtus.
All reshayim are sick that doesn’t change the fact that some sickness are rishus and some sick people are rishaim. Its not up to us judge their bechira only their actions.
No, I am not his defense attorney. No, I am certainly NOT saying he is innocent in any way, chas v’shuloim. All I am saying is that, though he is responsible for some very horrific things, he is sick, and we can have just a molecule of feelings left for him. He is a fellow Jew. A sick one, but still a Jew.
i hope he gets what he deserves
Don’t stone me. and to give the benefit of the doubt, maybe he is “innocent until proven guilty”?
When it comes to Jewish vs Goyish issues he is a fellow Yisroel. When it comes to bein odom l’chaveiro,Jew to Jew, he is EVIL.Bein Odom l’Makom,that is his own problem.
When a man sins u feel bad for him. . . When he hurts others u get hm off the streets. . . Always time to feel bad once hes lockd away for life. . Capitol punishment, anyone?
has it occurred to any of you that either; 1.this might be a mistake; or 2.this might be a secular Zionist propaganda plot to show that orthodox Jews are brutal and a menace to society ? have you forgotten the klal ,havei don es kol ho’adam l’kaf zechus ?
10:54 – unlikely – he has an unfavorable past re activities in militant groups. known to shin bet etc. moreover – the victims are here to testify. less the one in a vegitative plot- think its part of a zionist conspiracy to kill kids – are u nuturi karta
to 10:54 pm- STOP! We can’t cover these things up anymore. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! These things have been done over and over again and we CAN’T cover them up anymore. How many more children and adults are to be harmed before we uncover all of our garbage that is under the rug? BTW, do you have any affiliation with this creep?