Seven staff members at an ultra-orthodox Jewish school outside Paris were charged with “aggravated violence” against their students on Saturday.
The Beth Yossef school had hosted about 60 minors, and among them were “many underage American and Israeli children who do not speak French,” said prosecutor Laureline Peyrefitte, adding the children were living in “abusive conditions.”
The children had been subject to “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,” she said.
Other staff members who were questioned had “generally denied the facts, even if some were able to describe acts like slaps and blows,” she said.
An American boy escaped in July, seeking shelter at the US embassy in Paris — others followed.
With Post wires
