Former Colonia Dignidad sect leader arrested

Paul Schäfer, a former German Nazi soldier turned brutal Chilean sect leader, has been arrested on charges of pedophilia and suspicion of committing torture during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The 83-year-old was caught by police near the Argentinean capital Buenos Aires. Schäfer led an insular German sect in southern Chile called Colonia Dignidad, and had been hiding since a warrant for his arrest on multiple counts of pedophilia was issued in 1996. He was convicted of the charges in November 2004 along with 22 others from his enclave. A former corporal and medic in the Nazi army, Schäfer fled Germany to Chile in 1961 to avoid child sexual abuse charges. He then established the self-subsistent Colonia Dignidad, populated with mostly German immigrants. Schäfer is wanted in an investigation into torture during the 1973-1990 Pinochet dictatorship. Chilean investigators say that many political prisoners vanished after being sent to Colonia Dignidad. Surrounded by barbed and electrified wire and protected by barricades, the community adhered to a strict discipline and remained cut off from outside world. Schäfer is said to have systematically abused young children, many of whom were taken from the parents at birth.