Lev Tahor cult leader Eliezer Rompler who fled Guatemala after the authorities raided the cult’s compound last month was arrested a few days ago and is likely to be extradited to Israel in the near future, Israeli media outlets reported on Tuesday morning. He was arrested while trying to enter El Salvador due the Interpol international arrest warrant against him, which was issued at the request of Israel. His detention was extended in a local court on Monday and meanwhile, Israel’s extradition request will be processed. A horrifying indictment detailing severe child abuse was filed against Rompler in Israel in 2019 but he succeeded in escaping the country using a fake passport shortly before a hearing on his case was scheduled to take place at the Jerusalem District Court in December 2020. The indictment accuses him of severe abuse of minors, against children ages 9 and 10 in Canada between 2009 and 2011, when he served as the principal of a Lev Tahor school. According to the details in the indictment submitted at the time, Rompler violently beat two students at the school. In the first case, Rompler suspected one of the children had stolen money from a tzedaka box. As punishment for the student’s actions, the child “was stripped, laid down on a table that was in the place, and his legs were tied to the table so he wouldn’t move.” Subsequently, “the defendant and another teacher began to beat the student with a belt and a stick for several hours, all while the child cried, yelled for help, and begged them to stop.” As a result of the beating, the child was unable to stand on his feet and had to be carried home. In the second case described in the indictment, Rompler suspected that one of the children had lied, and “as a result, the defendant and the other teachers gathered the students of the school and told them that there was a student among them who had lied and needed to confess.” When no child responded, they took the suspected child by force and laid him on a table. “Two of the teachers began to whip him for about an hour, while the defendant, as the school principal, and the other teachers watched.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)