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France arrests guru and 40 others in raids on yoga sect

French authorities on Tuesday arrested 41 people in raids against a controversial yoga sect, including its leader, the Romanian guru Gregorian Bivolaru, a source close to the case told AFP.

France arrests guru and 40 others in raids on yoga sect
Gregorian Bivolaru (L), the spiritual leader of MISA sect, photographed in 2004. Photo by STRINGER / AFP

The sect is accused of numerous abuses under Bivolaru, who has been repeatedly in the crosshairs of judicial authorities in Romania, Sweden and France in the last years, the source said.

The people were arrested in the Paris region and southern France and included other key members of the sect, the source added.

Some 175 police officers were deployed for the operation, during which 26 women – several of whom were held against their will – were freed, the source said.

The network, called Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA), runs several yoga schools and related operations.

The source said the sect had “several hundred” members, but no precise figure was available.

The arrests follow a probe into the sect launched by Paris prosecutors in July, on suspicion of kidnapping, rape and people trafficking among others.

The investigation was sparked by France’s Human Rights League, a human rights NGO, which contacted the prosecutors’ office after receiving statements from 12 former MISA members, a judiciary source said.

MISA, which became known as Atman after its expansion beyond Romania, taught tantra yoga with the aim of “conditioning victims to accept sexual relations via mental manipulation techniques which sought to eliminate any notion of consent”.

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 source said.

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CRIME

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The head of France's top cinema institution Dominique Boutonnat denied sexually assaulting his godson as he went on trial Friday in a case that has led to calls for him to step down.

French cinema boss on trial for sexual assault

The trial comes as French cinema reels from a renewed #MeToo reckoning that has seen several big names, including acting legend Gerard Depardieu, accused of sexual abuse.

READ ALSO: French actor Gérard Depardieu to be tried for sexual assault in October

Activists have denounced Boutonnat’s continued leadership of the National Centre of Cinema (CNC), whose role includes overseeing measures to curb sexual violence in the industry.

His godson accuses him of trying to masturbate him during a holiday in Greece in 2020 when he was 19.

“I looked at him to find my godfather and that’s when I saw someone completely different… It was someone using me to masturbate,” the godson, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court.

Boutonnat responded in court that it was his godson who had initiated the situation and kissed him.

“I feel bad about leaving an ambiguous situation, but to say there was a sexual assault is false,” he told the court.

He was placed under investigation in February 2021 but still reappointed by the government as head of the CNC in July 2022.

Training to prevent abuse has in recent months become obligatory for films seeking public funding via the CNC.

The CNC told AFP that the case against Boutonnat came from “the private sphere” and had no relation to its activities.

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