Tantric yoga sect guru to appear before France judge / Photo: STRINGER - AFP
-
IoT Refrigerator Hacks Disrupt Blood Labs and Supermarkets Across Europe and US
-
South African election results renew debate over identity-based voting
-
Post-election pressures complicate US and Israeli decisions on Iran
-
South African voters report smoother local election but declining IEC trust
-
UN members approve talks on treaty protocol against environmental crime
-
Dolly Parton museum and Nashville hotel open after singer’s death
-
Family-run West Sussex beach café prepares for first winter season
-
George and Amal Clooney attend New York political-comedy reading
-
CT scans reveal health and burial clues from Egypt’s Braided Lady mummy
-
British buyers pay substantial premiums for period-home appearance
-
Oxford faces complaints over lecturer’s classroom attire
-
Thomas Markle released to house arrest after child-abuse-image charge
-
Kyren Wilson and John Higgins reach International Championship snooker final
-
Dawn of War 4 developers chose Adeptus Mechanicus for tactical variety
-
New Zealand and Tonga meet for place in Rugby League World Cup final
-
Italy face unbeaten South Africa in Turin Nations Championship match
-
Reports of unsafe AI-toy responses renew calls for child-safety rules
-
ChatGPT interactive interface feature tested across six custom tools
-
Juneau food network combines difficult supply routes with deep sharing traditions
-
Freshways milk-price cut deepens pressure on UK dairy farms
-
India climbs green-transition ranking after first emissions decline in 25 years
-
Labour and National remain virtually tied as New Zealand vote count advances
-
Trump names Stephen Miller as White House chief of staff after midterm losses
-
The Good Daughter adapts Karin Slaughter thriller with Rose Byrne and Meghann Fahy
-
Restored Albanian tower houses anchor new rural tourism trail
-
Heavy-lift drone evacuates wounded Ukrainian soldier from frontline kill zone
-
Sonia Gandhi reflects on family tragedy and reluctant political career
-
Morrison says West Brom recovered after pressure from successive derby losses
-
Pope Leo begins three-country South American tour in Uruguay
-
Britain considers 2027 state visit for Ukraine’s Zelensky
-
Khawaja says entire Australia camp knew of 2018 ball-tampering plan
Tantric yoga sect guru to appear before France judge
The leader of a controversial tantric yoga sect was to go before a French judge on Friday, a judicial source said, after he was arrested in a probe along with over a dozen others on suspicion of kidnapping, rape and people trafficking.
Gregorian Bivolaru, a 71-year-old national of both Romania and Sweden, and 14 other people were to be questioned.
The source told AFP late on Thursday that 15 people in total were to be referred to the investigating magistrate with a view to being potentially charged in the case.
French authorities on Tuesday arrested 41 people, including Bivolaru, and freed 26 women in raids against the sect after a probe into alleged sexual abuse.
The others arrested have been released without facing any further legal proceedings at this stage.
Bivolaru founded a network called the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA), which runs several yoga schools.
MISA, which became known as ATMAN after its expansion beyond Romania, taught tantric yoga with the aim of "conditioning victims to accept sexual relations via mental manipulation techniques which sought to eliminate any notion of consent", the source said earlier this week.
Several women, of different nationalities, said they had been victims of the MISA organisation and its leader, the source added.
Women were encouraged to accept sexual relations with the group's leader and "to agree to participate in fee-paying pornographic practices in France and abroad".
The sect is thought to have several hundred followers in France.
The arrests follow a probe into the sect launched by Paris prosecutors in July, on suspicion of kidnapping, rape and people trafficking among others.
A human rights group collected statements from 12 former MISA members, triggering a French governmental body in 2022 to call for an investigation, the source said.
To escape legal proceedings in Romania, Bivolaru fled to Sweden, where he obtained political asylum in 2006, changing his name to Magnus Aurolsson.
He disappeared for several years after a Romanian court condemned him in absentia to six years in prison in 2013.
France arrested him in early 2016 and handed him over to Romania but he again vanished before French police detained him earlier this week.
MISA, in a statement in Romanian, on Thursday described the accusations against Bivolaru as "absurd".
It said the guru had been "the target since the 1990s of media campaigns seeking to discredit him".
O.Norris--AMWN
