
Cult killers sentenced to 50 years prison in Panama
ABC News
A court has imposed Panama’s maximum sentence of 50 years in prison on seven members of a cult who killed a woman and six children in a religious rite in a remote part of the Central American nation
PANAMA CITY, Panama -- A court imposed Panama's maximum sentence of 50 years in prison Friday on seven members of a cult who killed a woman and six children in a religious rite in a remote part of the Central American nation.
The court in Bocas del Toro province sentenced two other members of the New Light of God cult to 47 years in prison each.
The cult had operated for about three years in the Ngabe Bugle hamlet of El Terron on Panama's Caribbean coast, but villagers said it had changed after one member had a vision telling the lay preachers they had been “annointed” to exterminate unbelievers.
On Jan. 13, 2020, the group summoned a number of villagers to its improvised church in a long wooden shed.