Russia: Muslim sect members charged with abuse

MOSCOW — Russian prosecutors have brought up child abuse charges against members of a reclusive Muslim sect who have kept some of their children in underground cells for over 10 years.

Russia's Vesti television reported Wednesday that prosecutors in Kazan, the capital of the predominantly Muslim central province of Tatarstan, have also charged Faizrakhman Satarov, the sect's 83-year-old founder with negligence.

It said Satarov declared himself a prophet — a claim that contradicts the principles of Islam — and ordered some 70 of his followers to stop contacts with the outside world and live in underground cells they dug under a house outside Kazan in the early 2000s.

Vesti quotes prosecutors saying some 20 children, aged between 1 and 17, lived there for years, some of whom have never seen daylight.