Seven members of a religious sect were sentenced in Panama to the maximum penalty of 50 years in prison for murdering a pregnant woman and six children as part of a cult, informs a statement from the country’s Public Ministry published this Friday.
The events took place in the indigenous community of El Terrón on January 14, 2020 and were discovered when a man reported the disappearance of his family. His wife and five of his children were among the seven victims that authorities found in a clandestine grave.
According to the authorities, the victims died as a result of the blows inflicted with sticks, bibles and machetes by all the condemned. The minors were between one and 17 years old.
Among the members of the Nueva Luz de Dios sect were the grandfather and other relatives of the murdered children.
In addition to these convicted persons, the other two members of the sect accused of these crimes agreed to a sentence agreement for which they accepted their responsibility and were sentenced to 47 years in prison.
