France arrests yoga guru accused of sexually abusing followers

French police have freed several women and arrested 41 people in raids on an international yoga cult, including its leader, Gregorian Bivolaru. The Romanian-born guru is accused of human trafficking, rape and other crimes related to the exploitation of his followers.

About 175 police officers were deployed for the operation on Tuesday morning, during which 26 women - several of whom were held against their will - were released, sources told RFI.

They had been kept in deplorably cramped, filthy conditions, the source said.

A total of 41 key members of the Atman Yoga Federation were arrested in simultaneous raids in the Paris region and southeastern France, including the group's notorious leader.

Bivolaru, 71, has already been convicted of raping a minor in his native Romania. He is also wanted for alleged aggravated human trafficking in Finland, which led Interpol to issue an international arrest warrant for his arrest in 2017.

French authorities now plan to charge him with human trafficking, organized kidnapping, rape and organized abuse of the weakness of members of a cult.

"Spiritual Mentor"

Bivolaru's network, also known as the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (Misa), runs yoga schools and teacher trainings in several countries.

On its website, the group describes itself as the "largest yoga school in Romania and in Europe" and Bivolaru as its "spiritual mentor".

Several former members have described sexual abuse and psychological manipulation within the organization, which claimed to teach tantric yoga practices.

Students were allegedly forced to perform sexual acts on Bivolaru, participate in explicit video chats for money and other exploitative activities.

The arrests follow an investigation into the sect launched by Paris prosecutors in July, including suspicion of kidnapping, rape and human trafficking.

The investigation was started by France's Human Rights League, a human rights organization, which contacted prosecutors after receiving statements from 12 former Misa members, a judicial source said.

Criminal records

Misa was kicked out of the International Yoga Federation and the European Yoga Alliance in 2008 because of its "pornographic" practices, sources told RFI.

Bivolaru and his supporters claim he is the victim of an extensive conspiracy to discredit him.

He founded Misa in Romania in 1990. Later accused of sexual exploitation and tax evasion, he fled to Sweden and was granted political asylum in 2005, and subsequently expanded his network internationally as the Atman Yoga Federation.

He was arrested in Paris in 2016 and extradited back to Romania and sentenced to six years in prison for raping a minor.

In the end, he served only one year and three months before leaving Romania again and resuming his activities as a guru.

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(with newscasts)

Originally published on RFI


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