Judge Ariel Lijo ordered the prosecution of 19 defendants for the crimes of illicit association intended to commit crimes, and trafficking in persons for the purpose of sexual exploitation, within the framework of the case in which the Buenos Aires Yoga School is investigated (EYBA), which operated in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Villa Crespo, according to judicial sources.
Of the 20 defendants, fourteen were sentenced to preventive detention; to five, without preventive with “real bonds of 300,000 and 500,000 pesos; and, in the case of one of the doctors of the CMI Abasto Clinic, the lack of merit was ruled to prosecute or dismiss him.”
In addition, the embargo of all those processed on their money and/or property was blocked, “up to covering the sum of 1,200,000,000 pesos or 400,000,000 pesos.”
According to the resolution, “it was possible to prove the operation of a coercive organization that, under the guise of ‘Escuela de Yoga Buenos Aires'”, was dedicated to capturing people through deception or in situations of vulnerability, both for being minors and for their serious problems of addictions, health, different types of violence and crisis situations. All were used by the organization to gain their trust with the promise of healing, belonging and support.
In addition, “a process of capturing (depersonalization) and instrumentalization of people was tried, which consisted of moving away from their family environment and assigning a new ‘family’ within the organization to fully integrate them, even providing them with a new home within the headquarters and giving them a job.
“Throughout a long and complex process of depersonalization and exploitation, through methods of physical and psychological coercion, what they achieved was the total submission of the victims to their will,” says the ruling.
Juan Percowicz, accused as head of the association “flaunted his wisdom and divine powers, developed a complex indoctrinating aspect, formed by a philosophical structure based on classical, religious and spiritual literature, which forms the skeleton on which all the practices of physical and psychological coercion of the School such as the exhibitionist sexual tasks, the ‘sleep cures’, the monthly contribution by means of ‘envelopes’, among others.
