Murder trial opens over alleged masonic lodge crime network in Paris

Murder trial opens over alleged masonic lodge crime network in Paris Twenty-two defendants, including intelligence agents and police, accused of committing crimes on behalf of Freemason mafia Twenty-two people are to stand trial in France from Monday on charges of murder and other serious crimes centred on a masonic lodge accused of running hit squads. Seven defendants – including former intelligence agents, soldiers and businessmen – face possible life sentences. Prosecutors allege the group carried out murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy on behalf of a mafia network inside the Athanor lodge in the Paris suburb of Puteaux. At least four Freemasons from the lodge’s roughly 20 members are among those in the dock. Other defendants include four officers from France’s DGSE foreign intelligence service, three police officers, six executives, a security guard, a doctor and an engineer. Most of the accused, whose ages range from 30 to 73, have no previous criminal record. The alleged ringleaders are Jean-Luc Bagur, Frédéric Vaglio and Daniel Beaulieu, all members of the lodge, alongside Beaulieu’s righthand man Sébastien Leroy, accused of carrying out or organising the violence through a network of hired attackers. All four face life imprisonment if convicted. The case was triggered by a failed contract killing in July 2020, when two members of France’s parachute regiment were arrested in possession of weapons near the home of the business coach Marie-Hélène Dini. They told investigators they believed they had been asked to murder Dini on behalf of the French state, targeting Dini on the grounds that she worked for the Israeli spy agency the Mossad. Investigators discovered a link to Bagur, 69, a business coach rival of Dini’s and the lodge’s “venerable master”. Investigators say Bagur asked the 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 act...