Justice Ministry officials said it has taken a long time to file the indictment because of the investigation of the other rabbis and because Kopolevitch's lawyer asked to see the indictment and respond to it before it was presented to Jerusalem District Court.

The lawyer's response was not immediately available.

According to the indictment, Kopolevitch systematically selected a group of students each year and gave them preferential treatment in and out of class at the residential high school. He gave some of them private lessons in the early morning, brought them to his home or met them in the school health clinic when it was empty.

"For seven years, during the period between 1991 and 1997, the accused committed sexual crimes against students studying at the yeshiva," the indictment reads. "These crimes involved various types of sexual conduct, beginning with kisses (including on the mouth), fondling (including the chest area, the crotch and the sexual organ), and ending with masturbation through hand or body contact."

One of the students whom Kopolevitch allegedly forced to have sex was 14 years old.