In 2001 Swiss composer and orchestral conductor Michel Tabachnik was tried in the Grenoble criminal court, over his involvement in the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) religious movement. The Solar Temple was an esoteric and eclectic new religious movement and secret society, often described as a cult, that had been involved in several high profile mass-murder suicides in the 1990s. Tabachnik was accused of brainwashing the followers into the suicides and having known about the plans beforehand. Tabachnik was the only person tried in the aftermath of the Solar Temple deaths; he was found not guilty in the 2001 trial and in the 2006 appeal trial.
Tabachnik had been involved in the movement since 1977, and had written , some of their higher level esoteric texts. He was highly involved in its early years, but had gradually moved away from the order in the years prior to the suicides. Following the first suicide, Tabachnik's involvement was realized by investigators, and he was interviewed by the Swiss police. The Swiss investigations did not establish any connection between Tabachnik and the 1994 deaths, and his involvement in the group then received little public notice. After the second mass suicide in France in 1995, several journalists implicated Tabachnik in the deaths, accusing him of being more involved than had been suggested and saying the group had reunified behind him. The examining magistrate into the second set of deaths, Luc Fontaine, placed him under investigation on 12 June 1996.
He was charged with conspiracy to commit murder and participation in a criminal association, with prosecutors arguing that his writings had brainwashed the followers into the suicides and that he had known about the plans for mass suicide beforehand. Tabachnik was defended by Francis Szpiner and Carolyn Toby. Tabachnik was found not guilty on 25 June 2001 on the basis that there had been no significant or conclusive proof uncovered that Tabachnik had orchestrated the killings, and his writings were deemed unlikely to have influenced the members. The public prosecutor appealed the criminal court's decision, and an appeal trial was scheduled, but delayed repeatedly. In a second trial from 24 October from 30 October 2006, the appeals court upheld the lower court's ruling, and Tabachnik was acquitted a second time in December 2006. The failure to convict Tabachnik disappointed French politicians and the anti-cult movement. Several family members of the dead were also unsatisfied, not entirely because they believed Tabachnik was guilty, but for some of them due to their belief in outside involvement in the killings.
Background
Michel Tabachnik, born 1942, is a well-known Swiss composer and orchestral conductor who had an interest in esoteric philosophy. In June 1977, Tabachnik had met Joseph Di Mambro, the creator of a spiritual commune called . In 1981, he became the president of the Golden Way Foundation, another communal group created by Di Mambro in 1978. Later that year, Di Mambro invited as a speaker to the Golden Way Luc Jouret, by whom Di Mambro was charmed and who rose rapidly within the ranks of the organization once he joined.
In 1984, Di Mambro and Jouret founded the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) a religious group active in several French-speaking countries, led by Di Mambro and Jouret. It was a neo-Templar secret society with eclectic beliefs sourced from many different movements like Rosicrucianism, Theosophy, and the New Age. That year, Tabachnik moved with his wife to Canada, soon followed by Di Mambro. He had been highly involved with the OTS in its early years, but had moved away from it in the years before the suicides.
Within the framework of the OTS, Tabachnik wrote , esoteric texts that circulated within the OTS. These writings included 21 esoteric texts written between 1985 and 1992, which were distributed among the higher up members of the OTS. They incorporated many traditions and systems of thought, including Kabbalah, astrophysics, and alchemy. Tabachnik's teachings within the group were extremely obscure, and in one recorded meeting of OTS members, those who listened to a talk given by him stated that they did not know what he was talking about.
Mass suicides and murders Following several difficulties experienced by the group, including investigations and ex-member criticism, the leaders planning a of "transit"; the idea of a "voluntary departure of templars to another dimension in space". They conceptualized the transit as a ritual involving magic fire, where they would undergo a spiritual voyage to the star Sirius. Following his drift from the group, a few months before the suicides he reconnected with it. In September 1994, Tabachnik announced the end of the OTS in two meetings in Avignon at Di Mambro's request, what were the last meetings. He was the keynote speaker and was also involved in a ritual. In October 1994, the first transit killed 53 people, 48 in Switzerland and five in Canada; several of the dead did not consent to death or were directly murdered for being "traitors". Following these suicides, the group became internationally notorious.
It was later said that Tabachnik had indeed taken part in these conferences, but without knowing the plans, and that it had been a set-up by Di Mambro. At the time of the deaths, Tabachnik was in concert in Denmark. Due to documents found related to the group, the police were able to understand the workings of the community and recognize some of its members, including Tabachnik. As a result, he was interrogated by the Swiss police for several hours, but this was not made public. Despite his links to the group, he was not otherwise accused and this escaped public notice at the time of the first deaths. The Swiss investigations did not establish any connection between Tabachnik and the 1994 deaths. In December 1995, 16 more members of the OTS would commit mass suicide, this time in France; a third suicide occurred in March 1997, where five members killed themselves, though in this case they spared their three children.
The investigation into the Vercors deaths was headed by judge Luc Fontaine, the examining magistrate of Grenoble. Previously a prosecutor in Bonneville, he had only been in the position for a month. The investigation ultimately concluded that the two members of the group had killed the others and then themselves. This theory was reconstructed with animal remains and was agreed to be conclusive. They concluded that there was no external involvement in the massacre on the grounds of a lack of evidence. Fontaine's investigation was criticized at the time due to this decision. The investigation was done with limited resources, and Fontaine was not relieved of his other cases while investigating, which displeased the civil parties in the case. Some believed in outside involvement, particularly Alain Leclerc, the lawyer for several of the civil parties in the case, and the relatives of several of the dead, who believed that the actual perpetrators had escaped and had never been caught.
Initial investigation Following the Vercors deaths, on 23 December 1995, during the program on the French channel TF1, journalist Gilles Bouleau claimed that the group had survived and united behind Tabachnik, indirectly declaring that Tabachnik was the mastermind behind the Vercors massacre. Later, Swiss journalist Arnaud Bédat acquired photos claimed to directly implicate Tabachnik in the OTS's actions. This information was picked up by the media, leading Tabachnik to give a public denial. Tabachnik initially minimized his role and denied having been close to Di Mambro, but was eventually forced to admit that he had been a close associate, resulting in increased suspicion on him and his name making headline news in association with the case.
There was less proof tying Tabachnik to the 1995 deaths than the earlier suicides, as Tabachnik had no involvement with any of the dead. Fontaine needed to try someone, and Tabachnik was investigated following the incident. Fontaine placed him under examination on 12 June 1996 for conspiracy. At the time of the investigation, due to the death of the two leaders in Salvan in 1994, Tabachnik was the only defendant in the case. Fontaine considered that Tabachnik, through his writings and his conferences, could have incited followers to commit suicide. He was therefore charged with participation in a criminal conspiracy.
In his defense, Tabachnik published the book , with a preface by Pierre Boulez. On 11 July 2000, following an examination of his writings, Fontaine decided that there was enough evidence against Tabachnik to bring the case to trial. Fontaine suspected that Tabachnik had known that the deaths were being prepared. Additionally, the writings were alleged to have brainwashed the members. Tabachnik denied that he had any prior knowledge of the deaths, claiming he had only occasionally spoken at OTS conferences. He admitted to having been a member of the group, though he had initially denied it. Another member of the group, Claude Giron, a pharmacist, was also indicted for criminal conspiracy in February 1997, as he was suspected of supplying the drugs used in the killings to the group. The case against him was dismissed in July of that year.
Fontaine was interviewed in the 2000 book L'Ordre du Temple solaire: Les Secrets d'une manipulation, by Bédat, Bouleau, and Bernard Nicholas. As a result, Tabachnik's lawyer Francis Szpiner requested Fontaine be removed from the case on 28 February 2000. They claimed his statements within the book, which had discussed his legal processes and rationale for trying Tabachnik, were a violation of legal secrecy. This was rejected by judge Barillon.
First trial He was tried in 2001 by the Grenoble criminal court for conspiracy to commit murder and participation in a criminal association. On 13 April 2001, at the Grenoble Museum-Library, which had been transformed for the occasion, the trial began. Tabachnik was defended by Francis Szpiner. Also defending was Carolyn Toby. They painted him as a scapegoat of the justice system. The plaintiffs' side split into two camps; one camp, led by Alain Vuarnet, son and brother of Édith and Patrick Vuarnet, felt that the trial should not focus on Tabachnik's responsibility but on the investigation itself, which they felt had not been thorough. Alain Leclerc, a Paris lawyer, defended the families of several of the dead, including the Vuarnets. The other camp was led by the anti-cult group UNADFI who believed that Tabachnik and his writings were the cause of the mass suicides, and that cults must be eradicated.
On the seventh day of the trial, several former OTS members took the stand and testified. Among the testimonies given, some were shocked and angry at the group and the acts committed, while others remained faithful to Di Mambro and to the transit to Sirius. On the eighth day, Tabachnik was interviewed and told of having been manipulated and fooled by Di Mambro. On the tenth day, the prosecutor demanded 5 years' imprisonment for Tabachnik's alleged role in the conditioning of the Temple's followers. The prosecutors said that Tabachnik's participation in the Avignon meetings was a sign of wrongdoing. The prosecution painted him as one of the higher ups of the organization; the psychiatrist Jean-Marie Abgrall, called as an expert for the trial, said that Tabachnik's influence within the group was unclear. Szpiner argued that by the time the records showed the massacre was being planned, Tabachnik was no longer participating in the OTS.