http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5297990.stm

Uncertain future for US polygamy sect

Warren Jeffs has led the breakaway Mormon sect for four years
The arrest of US religious leader Warren Jeffs over alleged sex
offences has brought his reclusive polygamous sect back into the public
eye.
The 50-year-old head of the Fundamentalist Church of the Latter-Day
Saints (FLDS), was caught near Las Vegas after spending at least two
years on the run.

He went into hiding after being charged in Arizona with sexual
misconduct for allegedly arranging marriages between minors and older
men. He is also wanted in Utah on charges of being an accomplice to
rape.

Although placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List three months ago, Mr
Jeffs was eventually found as the result of a routine check by traffic
police in Nevada.

His arrest means the breakaway Mormon sect, which has an estimated
10,000 members, must face the prospect of having its way of life
examined in court.

The FLDS split from the Mormon Church more than a century ago after the
latter renounced polygamy.

The isolated sect now dominates the towns of Colorado City, in Arizona,
and Hildale, in Utah, less than a mile away. A compound in Eldorado,
Texas, is also home to a growing community.

Members believe a man must marry at least three wives in order to
ascend to heaven.

Boys expelled

Mr Jeffs - who became leader, or prophet, four years ago on the death
of his 98-year-old father, Rulon - is reputed to have between 40 and 70
wives and nearly 60 children.

The charges he faces revolve around claims he arranged marriages
between older men and under-age girls.

Two years ago, five boys also launched legal action claiming they had
been unfairly expelled from the community so elder members of the sect
would have less competition for wives.

The authorities believe as many as 1,000 teenage boys have been
forcibly separated from their families, faith and community chiefly on
those grounds.

Life in the compounds is said to be closely controlled, with women
obliged to wear 19th Century-style dresses and braided hair and the
church deciding which wives to give or take away from the men.

While polygamy is illegal in the US, the authorities have reportedly
been reluctant to confront the FLDS for fear of sparking a situation
similar to the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidian sect in Waco, Texas,
which led to the deaths of about 80 members.

'Dangerous' prophet

Arizona's attorney-general Terry Goddard said the capture of Mr Jeffs -
who had a $100,000 (£52,600) bounty on his head - had been down to
"good luck and good policing".

Warren Jeffs was placed on the FBI's most wanted list in May

The charismatic former teacher was "dangerous for a number of reasons",
he told the BBC's World Today programme.

"He has been the leader of a large polygamist sect which has many, many
allegations that young women, in particular, have been taken into
plural marriages without their consent and way below the legal age," Mr
Goddard said.

Officers who searched the Cadillac Escalade in which Mr Jeffs was
travelling with a brother and one of his wives seized at least $54,000
(£28,400) in cash, 15 mobile phones, laptops, radios and three wigs.

Close ranks

Speculation has now begun about what may happen to the community should
Mr Jeffs be found guilty and jailed.

Mr Goddard told a Phoenix radio station that the arrest marked "the
beginning of the end of... the tyrannical rule of a small group of
people over the practically 10,000 members of the FDLS sect".

Sect members may remain loyal to their leader even if he is jailed

Other observers suggest that, at the least, members may splinter into
smaller groups, thus weakening the sect's influence over their
thinking.

However, some who have had close dealings with the group predict that
putting Mr Jeffs on trial could make him a martyr in the eyes of
supporters.

Rod Parker, a lawyer who previously worked for the FLDS, told the Salt
Lake Tribune newspaper that sect members would not "change prophets"
just because he was in jail.

And former FLDS member Ross Chatwin told the paper he believed Mr Jeffs
was likely to remain in control with the help of compound leaders in
Nevada and Texas.

Observers note that there has been little sign of Mr Jeffs' grip on the
sect waning during more than two years on the run.

An FBI agent's report that Mr Jeffs had complained of being the victim
"of what he termed religious persecution" suggests the sect may simply
see the arrest as yet another attack on its faith and close ranks.