オランダ一家監禁事件　父親、子どもたちを殴って「悪霊」退治

【ハーグＡＦＰ＝時事】オランダの農家で10年近くにわたり外界と接触せず暮らしていた一家が保護された事件で、21日に審理が開かれ、検察は父親（67）が子ども6人を出生時から監禁し、子どもたちの体から「悪霊」を追い出すために殴打していたと明かした。（写真はオランダ北部ドレンテ州アッセンの法廷で、審理に臨む裁判官ら）
　子どもたちは昨年１０月、ドレンテ州ライナーボルト村郊外の農家で発見された。検察によると、父親のへリット・ヤン・ファン・Ｄ被告は、子どもたちが「汚れた」として、「非常に深刻な体罰」を加えていたという。子どものうち１人は罰として手足を縛られ、もう１人は夏の間ずっと農家の犬小屋に入れられていた。体罰は４、５歳と幼い頃から始まっていたという。
　また検察によると、同被告には９人の子どもがいるが、上から４番目以降の子どもたち６人は「出生時から隔離され、屋内で静かにしなければならなかったため、誰も子どもたちの存在に気付かなかった」という。当局への出生届も出されず、子どもたちは学校に通ったことが一度もなかった。
　同被告は健康上の理由から、２１日の審理は欠席した。同被告は、２００７年～１９年に子どもたちの自由を奪い、子ども６人には「殴る蹴るの暴力を加え、飲食物を与えず」、年長の子ども２人には性的暴行を加えた罪に問われている。
　検察によると、子どもたちは日記をつけており、外の世界に接触すると「汚れ」、「悪霊」が体に入ってくると信じていたという。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/01/23-09:06）

A Dutchman isolated six of his children in a remote farmhouse from birth and beat them to drive out bad spirits, prosecutors told a court on Tuesday.
Gerrit Jan van D., 67, subjected the youngsters who were found on the farm in the village of Ruinerwold in October to very serious physical punishment when he thought they had been made unclean.
One child was tied up by his hands and feet as punishment, while another child was forced to spend an entire summer in a doghouse at the farm in northern Drenthe province.
The children all speak of very serious physical punishment if their father thought there was a 'bad spirit' in them. That happened from a very young age, four or five years, prosecutors said during a procedural hearing in the case.
Prosecutors said the youngest six of the man's nine children lived in seclusion from birth, were kept indoors and had to be quiet so that no one would notice that they existed.
They were not registered with Dutch authorities and had never been to school, they said.
The family was first discovered in October when the oldest son still living on the farm walked into a local bar in a confused state and raised concern about the welfare of his other siblings.
Police raided the farm and arrested Van D. and an Austrian man identified as Joseph B., 58.
- 'Unclean' -
Van D. was absent for medical reasons from Tuesday's hearing in the town of Assen.
He is charged with depriving the children of their liberty from 2007 to 2019 and punching, kicking and denying food and drink to the six children. He is also charged with sexually abusing two of the older three children.
Joseph B. is also charged with depriving the children of their liberty and was in court.
I feel like this is a witch hunt, Joseph B. told the court. I have a clear conscience... I have not robbed anyone of his freedom.
Prosecutors said the three oldest children were not allowed to talk about the existence of their brothers and sisters.
Citing diaries kept by the children, prosecutors said they had all spoken of their conviction that contact with the outside world makes you 'unclean' and about 'bad spirits' that come into bodies. The father determined when a child had a 'bad spirit'.
This child was isolated, had to pray and the other family members were not allowed to have contact with this child, sometimes not even for months.
One of the children was separated from the rest of the family at the age of 12 and made to stay in a caravan on another part of the farm, prosecutors said, adding that after that he spent a whole summer in a doghouse in a shed.
The three oldest of the nine children were allowed to go to school and the exterior doors were not locked all those years, prosecutors said.
But they said that there was still unlawful deprivation of liberty for all these years -- classically locked up at times, but in a less classic way at other times.
Prosecutors said the abuse was a figurative lock on the door, adding that no physical lock is required on the door as evidence of unlawful deprivation of liberty or hostage-taking.