Mennonites jailed for rape campaign in Bolivia
A conservative Christian sect is still coming to terms with the predatory actions of a gang of men who used cattle anaesthetic on hundreds of victims in an epidemic of sexual violence that lasted for years.
Seven members of a Mennonite community in Bolivia have been sentenced to 25 years each in prison for a sustained rape campaign within the agrarian commune.
Ultra-conservative elements of the Mennonite community - like the better-known Amish - follow a strict code separated from modern society, which rejects inventions such as cars and electricity.
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But the community was thrust into the spotlight of modern society when the crimes of a gang of its male members were exposed in 2009.
Prosecutors said the crimes began in 2005 when a veterinarian in the isolated community, Peter Weiber, managed to alter a substance derived from the belladonna plant, which is normally used to sedate cattle, for use on humans.