Israeli cult leader charged with rape, enslavement of his 21 wives

A suspected Israeli cult leader alleged by prosecutors to have kept 21 wives under his spell was charged on Sunday with sexual crimes and enslavement.

The suspect, Goel Ratzon, 60, has denied the allegations in what the indictment called a "mind-boggling" saga of dominance and delusions of deity.                                           

"(He) has been indicted today for enslaving... wives and children and controlling them to fulfil his personal, sexual and economic needs," Dalia Avramov, a senior deputy in the Tel Aviv district attorney's office, told reporters.                                           

Ratzon, whose first name means "redeemer", kept 21 wives and 38 children in various homes around Tel Aviv, according to the allegations.

Sporting shoulder-length grey hair and a white beard, Ratzon was seen by the women he controlled as "omnipotent and possessing the powers of healing and destruction", according to the charges.  

Among the more serious allegations, which included rape and fraud, prosecutors said Ratzon was suspected of fathering children with some of his own daughters. "I am innocent," Ratzon told reporters during a hearing last week.                                           

Prosecutors said he collected money from the women, forced most of his wives to tattoo his name on their bodies and forbade them from contacting their families. Children had to kiss his feet when he came home, according to the indictment.  

Several women who identified themselves as Ratzon's wives appeared in an Israeli television documentary aired last year. "He is the messiah everyone is talking about," one said. "He is already here and he hasn't been revealed yet. The day he decides to reveal himself, the land will quake."                                           

One of his sons, 35-year-old Yigal Ratzon, told reporters in the courtroom his father was innocent. "There was always happiness and much love in the house," the son said.