---

Reuters, USA
Sep. 22, 2003
Virginie Ruchon
home.eircom.net

---

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 4545 • Posted: Monday September 22, 2003  

---

GRENOBLE, France (Reuters) – A fresh legal bid to convict a Swiss orchestra conductor of involvement in the ritualistic deaths of 16 cult members in 1995 has been adjourned by a French court.

Michel Tabachnik was cleared in June 2001 after judges ruled there was insufficient evidence he helped set up the suicides of 16 followers of the Order of the Solar Temple sect, but victims’ families appealed against his acquittal.

The Solar Temple gained worldwide notoriety after 74 of its members were found dead in woods in France, Switzerland and Canada between 1994 and 1997.

The dead were mostly shot or asphyxiated in what were apparently either ritual murders or mass suicides. Among the dead were the sect’s founders, who were accused of milking money from members and convincing them they must die in a fire to attain bliss in the afterworld.

The Grenoble appeals court on Monday adjourned the case until next June because two experts hired for the inquiry into sect have been put under investigation for leaking information.

“We agree to a postponement of the hearing in the interests of a proper treatment of the file and for the clarity of the debates,” judge Jacques Buisson told the court.

Separately, the prosecution counsel said it was up to the Grenoble public prosecutor to answer a request for new evidence to be examined suggesting the 1995 deaths of the 16 cult members may not have been suicide.

Last week, the son of a couple who were among the dead, said a forensic expert had found traces of phosphorus in his parents’ exhumed bodies, suggesting a flame-thrower had been used on them.

Tabachnik, who was in court, maintained his innocence and said he was in “total ignorance” about the fate of the 16 sect members, who included three children. He has admitted he once had links to the cult.

Lawyers for the victims’ families say the 16 were killed and set on fire by other Solar Temple members who fled.

The charred bodies were found, laid out in a star pattern, in a remote Alpine forest.

---

What You Can Do From Here

---

Read More Articles On These Topics Categories: Order of the Solar Temple Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article Subscribe Religion News Blog RSS feed [What is this?] RSS by topic: Order of the Solar Temple Read Another Article Previous entry: Solar Temple cult re-trial postponed Next entry: Priscilla Presley talks about drugs, Elvis and recovery RNB Homepage with latest headlines Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults Find Related Books Order of the Solar Temple Most Popular Today I know the dark side of Scientology…I almost lost my friend when she became obsessed with it Indictment against rabbi Elior Chen: Shook, beat, fed children feces ‘Cult’ program in NYC schools Church of Scientology told to drop Churchill images

---

Share This Article

---

To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:

• Post a link on your blog or website:
  
• Send in an email or IM:
  
• Post on a forum:
  

Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- CounterCultSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.

Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- ApologeticsSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.