Case files
45 stories
OneTaste: A Warning in Geneva Against the Misuse of Trafficking Laws
At the UN Human Rights Council, CAP-LC warned that the OneTaste convictions of Nicole Daedone and Rachel Cherwitz, resting on psychological influence alone, stretch trafficking law into a threat to spiritual communities.
25 September 2026
Eckankar and the St Paul Affair: Interview with Jean Maunick
The press interview in which the head of Eckankar Mauritius answers the accusations after the St Paul tragedy: one former member among the ten dead, medallions that prove nothing, a fifty-member group with a few chairs and books, and teachings that condemn suicide without reserve.
"They Did Not Save My Life", a Scandalous Anti-Cult Docu-Fiction
CICNS reads the 2009 book in which a TF1 news executive writes in the first person as a deceased woman, against the 80-page record of the appeal trial that acquitted the doctor the book targets, and against the journalists' charter its author signed.
Forced Psychiatric Commitments
Valérie Dole's sourced inquiry into forced psychiatric commitment in France: 52,000 forced hospitalisations in 2000, the I3P infirmary operating outside the law, and the ministry advice that ties guardianship to the cult accusation.
An Ethnologist at the Mandarom: Maurice Duval on the Pressures of Studying a Group France Had Already Judged
A condensed reading of Un ethnologue au Mandarom: the only French ethnologist to have lived inside the group recounts the CNRS letter warning that his relativism might banalise it, a journal's demand that he not say the rumour was unfounded and that he audit the group's finances, a university refusing his colloquium, and what he actually found on the accusations of confined children, drugs and rape.
Parenthood, Convictions and Children's Rights in the MIVILUDES 2009 Report
CICNS reads the report's custody case-law study against its missing context: judges writing 'cult' into their reasoning, divorce accusations as windfall, and the 80,000-children figure quietly absent from the mission's own pages.
André Delelis on Lending the Stade Bollaert to the Jehovah's Witnesses
Régis Dericquebourg's 1998 interview with the socialist mayor of Lens: an atheist's case for lending the municipal stadium to a minority the ADFI wanted banned, resting on Guy Mollet and the plain rule of law.
The Tragedy of St Paul
Ten deaths in Mauritius in August 2004, two EK medallions, and within days a whole religious minority under suspicion: Emile d'Albret traces how the French anti-cult template travelled to the Indian Ocean press, and defends nothing but the presumption of innocence.
Investigation into the ADFI, Part 2: The Victims of the ADFI
An anonymous dossier republished by the CICNS setting out five cases attributed to France's ADFI/UNADFI anti-cult network, from a 1982 suicide to the 2000 death of Doctor Yves Jullien.
UNADFI Before the Courts
CICNS case file on the 2005 suit before the Paris tribunal de grande instance seeking the dissolution of the anti-cult association UNADFI, with press coverage of the hearings and the judgment.
The Belgian State Condemned for Damaging the Image of the EURD
CICNS case file on the 2005 Brussels appeal ruling that condemned the Belgian State for damaging the image of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God in its 1997 parliamentary cult report.
Police Assaults on Spiritual Minorities
CICNS dossier of violent police and gendarmerie raids on spiritual minorities in France from 1989 to 2011 (Longo Maï, The Family, Beljanski, Tabitha's Place, the Mandarom and others), with CICNS's advice to victims.
The Steiner Schools Defamation Trial: Botched Investigations and Prejudice
Martine Lagattier's account in Alternative santé - l'impatient of the February 2000 defamation trial of deputy Jacques Guyard, sued by the Federation of Steiner Schools, the Mercure fédéral and the NEF over the 1999 parliamentary cult report.
Defaming "Cults" in All Good Faith
CICNS legal analysis of the Guyard and Brard rulings, in which French courts found defamation of movements labelled cults proven yet excused it under the good-faith doctrine.
The Suicide of Doctor Jullien
CICNS case file on Dr Yves Jullien, who took his own life in March 2000 after a cult rumor and administrative harassment closed his Epinoïa centre at l'Isle-sur-Serein.
The Case of the "Presumed Guru" Robert Lé Dinh
CICNS's 2012 follow-up on the Robert Lé Dinh appeal trial: UNADFI as civil party, the About-Picard law, psychological subjection, and the media's treatment of the case.
The Lé Dinh Case: Remarkable Defence Pleadings on the Relentless Mechanics of So-Called "Cult" Trials
CICNS commentary on the 2010 assize trial of Robert Lé Dinh, reproducing the defence pleadings of Maîtres Lebonjour and Martial on how the cult postulate shapes French courtrooms.
The l'Essentiel Affair
CICNS case file on the 20 November 2000 raid by sixty armed gendarmes on the small Terranova spiritual community in the Aveyron, and the five years of surveillance, custody and trial that framed it.
Complaint by a Spiritual Minority After an Abusive MIVILUDES Raid
The full text of the 2010 criminal complaint filed by the Moulin des Vallées community against MIVILUDES president Georges Fenech over an unannounced 2009 raid conducted with undisclosed journalists.
The Arnaud Mussy and Néo-Phare Affair: Revocation of Human Rights
A 2005 CICNS member's analysis of the Arnaud Mussy / Néo-Phare appeal verdict, the first application of the About-Picard law, and the role of expert witness Jean-Marie Abgrall.
Are the Banks Taking Part in the Repression?
A 2005 CICNS investigation into French banks jointly refusing accounts to a spiritual association, the legal right to an account, and the role of FATF blacklists, TRACFIN and the DGCCRF.
Cults, Rumours and the Courts: Laurent Hincker's Case Files
CAP-LC's 2003 review of Strasbourg lawyer Laurent Hincker's book on rumour-driven prosecutions of spiritual movements, from the Guyard anthroposophy defamation case to a Hindu movement destroyed by press inventions.
The Gettliffe / Grant Affair
CICNS's dossier on the Gettliffe/Grant custody affair (2001-2009): the annotated Thémis-Phonetag blog debate over Nathalie Gettliffe's removal of her children from Canada, the court rulings on both sides of the Atlantic, and the October 2010 addendum.
The Dr Guéniot Affair
CICNS's case file on Dr Gérard Guéniot: the 2006 Lille conviction, the full 2009 Douai appeal acquittal, and how the media, ADFI/UNADFI and the MIVILUDES treated the 'Grail' cult affair.
The Trial of the Order of the Solar Temple
CICNS's press dossier on the Order of the Solar Temple trial: Michel Tabachnik's 2001 acquittal and 2006 appeal acquittal, the victims' families' fight to reopen the investigation, and the unanswered questions around the 74 deaths.
The Paturel Case and the European Court of Human Rights
Press coverage, the ECHR Registrar's communiqué and Christian Paturel's own testimony on Paturel v France (22 December 2005), in which Strasbourg unanimously found that his French defamation conviction over an anti-cult book violated Article 10.
Jean-Pierre Brard's Run-Ins with the Law
CICNS dossier on deputy Jean-Pierre Brard's legal entanglements: his defamation conviction over the Jehovah's Witnesses upheld in cassation, the Chouraqui and Jasmeen rulings, and his clashes with the Protestant federations.
Court Decisions in Favour of Spiritual Minorities (2007)
Three 2007 French rulings compiled by CICNS: Catherine Picard's defamation conviction over the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Cour de cassation finding Fournier and Picard's book defamatory towards AMORC, and the dismissal of Anne Hidalgo's suit against Christian Cotten.
Jehovah's Witnesses in the French Courts: A Case File
CICNS's compiled case file on the Jehovah's Witnesses in France: the Picard and Brard defamation convictions, the 45-million-euro tax battle, the court-ordered disclosure of the intelligence files behind the 1996 cult list, and local hostility to their places of worship.
The Beatitudes Community Affair
CICNS's chronology of the Beatitudes community affair: the complaints and judicial proceedings, MIVILUDES's cautious handling, and the media's role in building the group's negative image.
Is French Justice Really Independent?
Starting from the 2007 Lisieux 'Parc d'accueil' affair, CICNS asks whether French justice can remain independent of rumor, media pressure and political influence, with extracts from Charles Debbasch and Jean-Louis Nadal.
The French Judge Facing 'Cult' Cases
Engineer and CICNS member Éric Bouzou surveys how French courts handle 'cult' cases, drawing on Vincente Fortier's case-law study and testimony from Raphaël Liogier and Laurent Hincker.
Me, Anne, a Mother: Children Held Hostage by French-Style Anti-Cultism
A mother's first-person account of losing custody of her two daughters after her ex-husband, backed by an anti-cult association, branded her community, the Gens de Bernard, a cult.
The Archives of Maître Paturel, Part 1
CICNS opens the thousand-page archive of Maître Christian Paturel, the lawyer who prevailed over UNADFI at the European Court of Human Rights, starting with the 1993 mass removal of 33 children from 'La Famille'.
The Archives of Maître Paturel, Part 2: The 'Blunders' of the Gest-Guyard Report
From Maître Paturel's archives, CICNS re-examines the 1996 Gest-Guyard parliamentary report on cults: its factual blunders, its unsourced claim of 'numerous illegalities', and the fifteen court cases cited in its support.
The Archives of Maître Paturel, Part 4: The Horus Case and the Conscientious Objectors
In this interview extract from his archives, Maître Christian Paturel recounts the gendarmerie operation at the Horus agrarian community and how he came to defend more than three thousand conscientious objectors, most of them Jehovah's Witnesses.
A Psychoanalyst in Prison!
Guy Delaunay's 2007 defense dossier on psychoanalyst Claude David, jailed amid cult-manipulation accusations, tracing the Fondation PI's history, the rumor campaigns against it, and the machinery of the French anti-cult fight.
The Affair of the Ardennes Social Intervention Directorate (DISA)
A CICNS chronology of the DISA affair: three child-welfare educators accused of cult behaviour in 2004, one imprisoned for three months, cleared by a discharge in 2010 after two SRPJ officers admitted inventing their confessions.
1 October 2010
Police Descent on Terre du Ciel at the Chardenoux Estate
CICNS documents the January 2010 police search of the Terre du Ciel centre in Saône-et-Loire, its letter campaign to the authorities, Janine Tavernier's statement of support, and the abandonment of the cult line of inquiry.
1 January 2010
Scientology in the Anti-Cult Hunt in France
CICNS's 2008 dossier on the scarecrow role assigned to Scientology: how the fear terminology was built, what the accusations amount to, the full list of French convictions on the record, and what a dissolution would risk.
1 September 2008
Waco: What Really Happened?
CICNS's account of the 1993 siege of the Branch Davidians at Mount Carmel: the ATF raid, the 51-day standoff, the final assault, and the media narrative.
1 January 2008
Letter to My Brothers Said to Be “Under Influence”
Guy Delaunay of the Gens de Bernard community answers the January 2007 raid and the imprisonment of Claude David with a meditation on influence, reference points, guilt and freedom.
27 November 2007
A Former UNADFI President Writes the Preface: Janine Tavernier on the A.M.O.R.C. Injustice
Janine Tavernier, president of the UNADFI from 1993 to 2001, prefaces the Rose-Cross Grand Master's book: she recalls the criterion she insisted on - harmfulness, never doctrine - reports hearing an anti-cult figure say the idea of God must be eradicated, and calls for the official rehabilitation of A.M.O.R.C.
1 May 2006
Spiritual Minorities and Sexual Abuse?
André Tarassi's 2006 dossier on the great sexual-abuse affairs involving spiritual leaders, from Chopra's ten-minute acquittal to the Mandarom defamation rulings: what survived the courts, what remained rumour, and the invisible abuse of score-settling behind the stigmatisation campaign.
1 January 2006
The Kinesiology Affair
Éric Bouzou's May 2005 article on the Moëlan-sur-Mer trial: five people in the dock, but Kinesiology itself pointed at, and behind the amalgam a question of fear and power. With the AFP dispatch on the verdict reproduced and annotated.
1 May 2005