He separated young children from their parents, forced people to work for him, and abused and mistreated children under the guise of their Tibetan Buddhist upbringing. After more than twenty years of legal proceedings, Belgian cult leader Robert Spatz was sentenced to five years in prison on appeal in Liège and paying compensation to victims.
“A victory”, responds Belgian Portuguese Ricardo Mendes (40), who was born in the Ogyen Kunzang Chöling (OKC) sect and who entered the legal battle with twenty other ‘sect children’. “We are little fighters against a mighty giant. He is now a convicted criminal and pedophile.”
Spatz founded OKC in 1972 and had centers in Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal. In Brussels he had organic shops and restaurants, where followers worked without getting paid for them. Mendes estimates that there have been 200 to 300 people over the years, of which several dozen followers remain.
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