Image Credit: Frans Sellies / Getty 
PARIS (LifeSiteNews) — Twenty-two people are on trial for carrying out wide ranging crimes — from aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy to attempted murder and murder — on behalf of a Masonic lodge in the Paris suburb of Puteaux.
At least four of the accused appear to be members of the Athanor Masonic Lodge. Seven defendants, including former intelligence agents, soldiers and businessmen face life imprisonment.
Others on trial include four officers from France’s DGSE intelligence service, three police officers, six business executives, a security guard, a doctor, and an engineer, according to news outlet AFP France 24.
The alleged ringleaders are Athanor Freemasons Jean-Luc Bagur, Frédéric Vaglio, and Daniel Beaulieu.
They stand accused of the murder of race car driver Laurent Pasquali in 2018, the attempted murders of a business coach and a trade unionist, and aggravated assault and criminal activity, all carried out on behalf of a “mafia network” inside the Athanor Lodge.
AFP France 24 reports:
The case was triggered by a botched contract killing in July 2020, when two members of France’s parachute regiment were arrested in possession of weapons near the home of business coach Marie-Hélène Dini.
Under questioning, they said they thought they had been asked to murder Dini on behalf of the French state on the grounds that she worked for Israeli spy agency Mossad.
Investigators discovered a link to Bagur, who is a business coach rival of Dini’s as well as being the 69-year-old “venerable master” of the Athanor lodge.
Investigators say Bagur asked fellow Freemason Vaglio to arrange to have his rival eliminated for a fee of €70,000 ($80,600).
Vaglio, a 53-year-old entrepreneur, allegedly acted as the intermediary between the big boss and a hit squad working for fellow Athanor Freemason Beaulieu, a retired agent for the domestic intelligence service (DGSI).
“What my client found terrifying is the fact that the key figures in this case – police officers, former DGSI agents and Freemasons – are precisely the people who are supposed to act for the good of society,” said Dini’s lawyer Jean-William Vezinet.
Defendant Sébastien Leroy, a former soldier who is seen as Beaulieu’s right-hand man, told investigators that Beaulieu had “manipulated” him, implying that he might become an informant for the DGSI spy agency.
The ages of the defendants range from 30 to 70-years-old. The trial is expected to run for at least three months.
