SOS Children’s Villages chief suspended amid child abuse probe

In 2022, SOS Children’s Villages said a major donor had been implicated in child sex abuse at one of its facilities in Asia. (Photo/Getty Images)

The director of SOS Children's Villages, an international charity for orphaned and abandoned children, has been suspended following allegations of abuse at facilities in Austria, the supervisory board has said.

Christian Moser, who has headed the organisation for 17 years, has been relieved of all his duties pending the findings of an external audit.

Separately, Austrian prosecutors said last week they had launched a probe after reports of alleged child abuse at a care facility run by Austria-based SOS Children's Villages, which has 572 branches in more than 130 countries.

"The supervisory board believes that child protection, transparency and dealing with the facts are an absolute priority," Irene Szimak, chairwoman of the supervisory board of SOS Children's Villages Austria, said on Saturday.

The charity said on September 17 it was launching an external audit of its procedures after weekly magazine Falter published a report alleging children had been mistreated at its Moosburg facility in southwestern Austria between 2008 and 2020.

Investigating cases of violence

Falter alleged that children and teenagers were beaten, locked up, and photographed naked for years.

The alleged abuse was never made public despite a detailed internal report in 2020.

Since the Falter report, there have been similar allegations about the children's villages in Imst in Tyrol and Seekirchen near Salzburg.

Prosecutors in Klagenfurt, Innsbruck, and Salzburg are now investigating. Moser has, as yet, not reacted publicly to his suspension.

In 2022, SOS Children’s Villages said a major donor had been implicated in child sex abuse at one of its facilities in Asia.

The previous year, the charity said it was investigating cases of violence, particularly sexual violence, and fraud committed from the 1990s onwards in around 20 of its operations in Africa and Asia.

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Source: TRT