Georgia reviews French extradition request for couple in controversial sect case

Georgia is reviewing a request by France to extradite a couple linked to a yoga sect movement who are suspects in an investigation into kidnapping, rape, and human trafficking, their lawyer said Wednesday.

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Romanian-born Mihai and Adina Stoian were arrested on August 26 upon their arrival in Georgia under an international arrest warrant issued by an investigative judge in Paris, lawyer Tamar Abesadze told AFP.

“The issue of their extradition is being reviewed by the relevant authorities, and the Georgian court has a period of nine months to deliver a verdict,” she added.

According to the France-based Group for the Study of Sectarian Phenomena (GePS), Mihail Stoian is the right-hand man of the guru Gregorian Bivolaru — the leader of the sexual yoga sect, MISA/ATMAN Federation, which operates in 30 countries and reportedly has around 40,000 followers.

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Bivolaru was arrested in France on November 28 last year during a major police raid that led to the indictment of 17 people, six of whom remain in pre-trial detention.

He has been charged with abuse of weakness, kidnapping, rape, and human trafficking and faces up to 30 years in prison.

On September 16, GePS claimed in a statement that testimonies it had collected “indicate that the Stoian couple was involved in sending female followers from Denmark to Paris to the abusive guru Bivolaru.”

Lawyer Abesadze said her clients “assert that the arrest warrant issued by a French judge is illegal and that they are being persecuted for religious reasons.”

“They firmly maintain their innocence and categorically deny having committed any crime.”

The couple claims “they could not control everything that happened in the tantric yoga centers they had founded in 35 countries around the world,” she added.

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