Vancouver, Canada - A special prosecutor will decide if charges should be filed against a U.S.-linked polygamist community that has lived in Western Canada for decades, provincial officials said on Wednesday.
Polygamy is illegal in Canada, but British Columbia prosecutors have opposed charging members of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS) out of fear the law against plural marriages was unconstitutional.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched an investigation into an FLDS group in Bountiful, British Columbia, two years ago after media reports raised allegations underage women were being forced into marriages with older men.
Government prosecutors reviewed the police report to decide if charges should be filed, but British Columbia Attorney General Wally Oppal asked that it be looked at again by an independent prosecutor because of the office's past position on the law.
"We want the public to know that when a decision is made, it is made independent of any influence beyond what would appropriate," said Geoff Gaul, a spokesman for British Columbia's Criminal Justice Branch.
The results of the government prosecutors' review has not been released.
The FLDS is a break-away sect of the Mormon church that is believed to have about 10,000 members in Utah, Arizona, Texas and British Columbia. The Canadian community was established in the late 1940s.
Men in the FLDS need three wives to enter the highest realm of heaven, according to the group's teachings.
Leaders of the Bountiful community of about 1,200 people have defended their practice of polygamy, and denied that girls or women in the community of have been abused or sexually exploited.
The group's U.S. leader, Warren Jeffs, is awaiting trial in Utah on charges he was an accomplice to rape for using his authority to order a 14-year-old girl against her wishes to marry and have sex with her 19-year-old cousin.
Polygamy is also illegal in the United States, and officials in British Columbia and Utah agreed in 2005 that they would co-operate in pursuing allegations of sexual exploitation by the group.
U.S. and Canadian officials have said it is difficult to investigate the allegations because the group is secretive and women who may have been abused have been taught from an early age that outsiders should not be trusted.
The special prosecutor named to review the British Columbia case is Richard Peck, a high-profile Vancouver defense attorney.