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The leader brainwashed women into having sex with him in the yoga sect.
In 2005, he received a permanent residence permit in Sweden.
Now he has been arrested in France together with 40 others from the sect.
French police have arrested 41 people on Tuesday in Paris and southern France after carrying out several large-scale raids against a yoga sect. The sect is described as controversial and among them the leader of the sect, who previously sought asylum in Sweden, has been caught, sources with insight into the case told AFP.
Around 175 police officers were involved in Tuesday’s arrest which led to the release of 26 women, several of whom had been held against their will and were in a “deplorable condition”.
The man, who is in his 70s, is charged with trafficking, kidnapping, rape and organized assault against members of the sect.
The sect is accused of numerous abuses under the leader, who has been the subject of Swedish, Romanian and French justice systems.
Received political asylum in Sweden
The man received Swedish asylum as a political refugee in 2005 after being prosecuted in Romania for eight cases of sex with a minor, tax evasion and exile. The country requested his extradition, but the Supreme Court of Sweden said no.
In the same year, he received a permanent residence permit in Sweden for having “risked religious and other persecution in Romania”.
In 2013, he was sentenced in absentia to six years in prison for sex with a minor, but was acquitted of the trafficking charge. He was extradited three years later to Romania from France, but fled in 2017 when he was paroled.
Yoga schools with hundreds of members
The sect was founded in the 90s and eventually expanded to other countries outside of Romania.
It will run several yoga schools with hundreds of members, the source told AFP. French prosecutors have pursued the investigation against the sect following, among other things, suspicions of kidnapping, rape and trafficking.
The sect taught tantric yoga with the aim of “brainwashing victims into accepting sexual relations through manipulation techniques”.
The women were encouraged to have sexual relations with the leader. The investigation found evidence that the women were forced to participate in sex chats that generated money for the sect.
The man has previously denied criminal charges. On the sect’s website, the movement has called some of the previous accusations “fabricated facts”.