Romanian guru suspected of working worldwide intercourse sect handed preliminary costs with 14 others
PARIS — A 71-year-old Romanian yoga guru and 14 others have been handed preliminary costs by a Paris Justice of the Peace on a raft of counts linked to a world ring that for years allegedly subjected followers in search of enlightenment to sexual exploitation.
The Paris prosecutor’s workplace mentioned that six of the 15 folks interrogated have been ordered held on Friday, whereas 9 others have been freed however beneath judicial surveillance.
Gregorian Bivolaru was amongst two of the six handed a string of preliminary costs that included human trafficking in an organized band, kidnapping, sequestration or arbitrary detention of quite a few folks together with rape and “abusing the weakness of a group” through psychological or bodily subjection. None of the 15 was named however a judicial supply mentioned that Bivolaru was among the many two dealing with the longest listing of costs.
A trimmed-down model of the preliminary costs have been handed to the opposite suspects. An investigation will now decide whether or not the preliminary costs result in a proper indictment and a trial.
The arrest this previous week of Bivolaru and 40 others within the Paris area ended a six-year manhunt in a number of international locations. The police unit that combats sect-related crimes freed 26 folks described by authorities as sect victims who had been housed in deplorable circumstances.
Accounts from alleged victims detailed within the French media painting Bivolaru as a guru who coerced ladies into sexual relationships beneath the guise of non secular elevation in a profession spanning a long time and continents.
Bivolaru’s group, initially often called MISA, for Movement for Spiritual Integration Toward the Absolute, was later often called the Atman yoga federation. Non-consensual sexual actions beneath the facade of tantric yoga teachings have been allegedly on the coronary heart of the group, based on a French judicial official who spoke final week on situation of anonymity as a result of the particular person, like different judicial officers, wasn’t licensed to debate the continuing investigation.
The group’s “ashrams” have been facilities for indoctrination and sexual exploitation disguised as non secular enlightenment, based on the official. One seemed to be solely devoted to satisfying the wishes of the chief, with ladies transported there from elsewhere, the official added.
MISA mentioned in an announcement on its web site in Romanian that Bivolaru had been focused by media campaigns because the Nineties to “discredit and slander” him, calling any costs in opposition to him in France “absurd accusations.”
The Atman federation in the meantime described the state of affairs to The Associated Press in an e-mail as a “witch hunt,” disclaiming duty for the non-public lives of scholars and academics at its member colleges. It additionally highlighted that some member colleges had gained instances on the European Court of Human Rights, demonstrating human rights violations in opposition to them.
The alleged sexual abuses spanned Europe. In 2017, Finland’s National Bureau of Investigation issued a world arrest warrant for him for alleged aggravated human trafficking. Bivolaru had obtained political refugee standing in Sweden in 2005, which delayed authorized proceedings in Romania. In France, yoga retreats have been held in and round Paris and within the southern Alpes-Maritimes area. However, it was not instantly clear how lengthy he had been in France.
