He took young children away from their parents to be able to continue undisturbed, let people work for him almost for free and bought villas and a castle with their ‘gifts’. After more than twenty years of litigation, the Court of Appeal in Liège sentenced the Belgian ex-guru Robert Spatz (76) to five years with a postponement. The man has lived in Spain for years.
–
More than seventy cartons thick is the case against the former leader of the sect Ogyen Kunzang Chöling (OKC). In recent years, Brussels resident Robert Spatz has had to answer several times for more than 170 complaints, ranging from social fraud and forgery to torture, incarceration and sexual abuse of minors. But every time he appealed against his convictions. And usually won. He can still appeal in cassation now. Whether he does that is not clear. He has lived in Spain for years and prefers to stay out of here. For fear of his former followers who made him rich without realizing it. Not then, but now.
It all started in 1972. Spatz, who was working as a TV repairman at the time, decided after a trip through India to found the Buddhist community Ogyen Kunzang Choling (OKC) in Brussels. Outwardly, it was a learning and experience center on Tibetan Buddhism. In the autumn of the flower power period, Spatz gathered hundreds of followers from home and abroad around him in no time. They worshiped Spatz, who allowed himself to be called Lama Kunzang, worked for OKC and even gave up their belongings. Spatz himself, in fact a man of twelve trades and thirteen accidents, invested in villas and even bought a castle. But he also opened organic stores and restaurants. All of his staff were followers and worked in exchange for room and board.
He himself led a divine life. He did not work, had a whole harem and gave the children of his followers a spartan upbringing in which maltreatment and abuse were almost daily occurrences. Several cult babies were born from all these contacts.
In the late 1990s it became clear that OKC was a facade for fraud and abuse. Because more and more members no longer felt good in the cult. But leaving was not just easy. They were threatened and followed.
A number of them still dared to go to court. Such as the Belgian Portuguese Ricardo Mendes (40), one of the cult children. He was one of the first to engage in a legal battle with the guru.
When he was barely five years old, Mendes’s mom was sent to one of Spatz’s organic shops to work there. Free. The child himself was sent to the Château du Soleil in southern France, the castle that the guru had bought with donations and proceeds from his shops and restaurants. Mendes was only allowed to see his mom twice a year. He testified to the Dutch NOS following the trial: “The children had to go to the temple twice a day for two hours, continued to practice yoga and karate and according to lessons. We had to learn to accept suffering, that was our karma. Buddhism was completely abused. We were often beaten with sticks. On the buttocks, back and shoulders. ”
Claudia, now 51, was sexually assaulted as a cult child. The complaints have been proven, but have now expired. But because of all the testimonies, the guru fell off his pedestal in the middle of 2000 and fled to Spain.
In 2016, the Brussels Criminal Court declared Robert Spatz, who was never present at his trials, guilty of minors taking hostage, sexual abuse of minors and economic crimes. But two years later, the Brussels Court of Appeal overturned the verdict on the grounds of violation of the rights of the defense. The file then went to the Court of Cassation and the Court of Appeal of Liège. There, Spatz, already 76, has been sentenced to five years with a postponement.
–
