Feds Release Photos Of 12 Amish Defendants Indicted For Cutting Beards, Hair Of Religious Foes

In response to a Freedom of Information Act request, federal officials today released mug shots of the dozen Ohio residents indicted last month for their alleged roles in a series of religiously motivated attacks on fellow members of the Amish community.

Pictured above, the defendants--10 men and two women--have been accused of forcibly cutting off the beards of male victims and the head hair of female victims with whom they have had ongoing religious disputes.

Click here to enlarge the booking photo grid. And to see the defendants in profile, click here.

As noted by Department of Justice officials, “the manner in which Amish men wear their beards and Amish women wear their hair are symbols of their faith.”

Prosecutors allege that the attackers were led by Samuel Mullet, 66, a bishop in the Amish community in Bergholz, Ohio. Mullet, pictured above in the upper left corner, “exerted control over the Bergholz community by taking the wives of other men into his home, and by overseeing various means of disciplining community members, including corporal punishment.”