Almese, sect leader arrested: accusations of slavery and violence

Behind the yoga, meditation and self-defense courses was a sect run by a man who claimed to have supernatural powers. There, Bruno Malatesta was in charge, the Master and the "adepts" became slaves and suffered physical, psychological and sexual violence: it was the Carabinieri of the Turin Investigation Unit who discovered all this, who found the sect in the residential community managed by a 59-year-old man in Almese, in Val di Susa. Who, at dawn today, ended up in handcuffs on charges of enslavement, family abuse, aggravated sexual violence and aggravated fraud against the State.

Since March 2024, investigators have been trying to reconstruct what was happening behind the walls of that community and behind the projects of the Fiore della Pace Foundation, which officially helps the homeless, collects food in supermarkets and offers psychological support. From there the "Asmodeus" operation began, named after a powerful demon close to Satan: in Jewish and Christian tradition, he is considered "the lord of greed, anger and revenge". A name and a role that the police have also chosen to associate with the arrested fifty-nine year old.

According to the accusation, he exercised total control over the followers through psychological manipulation, offering them shamanic therapies or rituals capable of alleviating their suffering or even healing them.

Not only that, the fifty-nine year old - self-proclaimed "the chosen one" because he was in contact with the "Divine Mother" - hosted in the community mainly women whom he defined as "nuns" or "adepts", forcing them to take a vow of obedience and poverty by paying all their possessions in his favor.

The victims were chosen with precision, given that they often suffered from problems and illnesses. Thus they were more manipulable even by the "Maestro" collaborators themselves, two women and a man, who are now under investigation in a state of freedom. The two collaborators - one with the role of "Teacher" and the other a professional psychologist on whom further investigation is still underway - managed the "sect" on a logistical level. The collaborator, "Monaco" and massage therapist, performed paid "sexual therapies" only on female clients, taking advantage of their moments of mourning or fragility.

The "Master", recipient of precautionary custody in prison, is also said to have sexually abused minor victims, subjecting them to repeated acts of sexual violence by passing them off as alleged "purifying therapies".

Finally, among the charges against the fifty-nine year old, there is aggravated fraud against the State because he pretended not to be able to walk, misleading the INPS medical commission and illegally receiving over 80 thousand euros as a disability pension.