Berland, Shuvu Banim head, seeks release from jail due to 'poor health'

Eliezer Berland, head of the "Shuvu Banim" sect, has appealed to the Jerusalem District Court to cancel the indictment against him due to his claims of poor health.

Berland is currently being held pending his trial on counts of obtaining money and services via fraudulent means, extortion, and other serious crimes. Earlier this year, the court ruled that he was to be held until the conclusion of proceedings against him, due to his history of evading justice when he fled abroad in order to avoid trial on serious sex offences. He was eventually captured and found guilty on several accounts of sexual abuse, to which he admitted in a plea bargain.

Then, too, Berland made claims of poor health which influenced the plea bargain and led to his early release, following which he resumed operations at the head of his sect, widely considered a cult. Numerous documented instances of extortion and other dubious practices have emerged since, culminating in his most recent arrest.

Although Shuvu Banim claims to be a stream of Breslov Chassidus, virtually every Breslov rabbi of the generation has condemned Berland in the severest terms and considers him an outcast and evil-doer.