SWITZERLAND: MAGISTRATE REVEALS THAT SOME MEMBERS OF THE SOLAR TEMPLE CULT WERE MURDERED

Record ID: 558941

  • Title: SWITZERLAND: MAGISTRATE REVEALS THAT SOME MEMBERS OF THE SOLAR TEMPLE CULT WERE MURDERED
  • Date: 8th October 1994
  • Summary: FRIBOURG, SWITZERLAND (OCTOBER 8, 1994) (REUTERS TELEVISION - AVAILABLE ALL) 1. GV JUDGE ANDREI PILLER SEATED AT NEWS CONFERENCE 0.10 2. CU PILLER TALKS ABOUT THE COMPLETION OF THE AUTOPSY. SAYS 13 BODIES HAVE BEEN IDENTIFIED, SIX THEY THINK THEY RECOGNISE BUT HAVE NO IDEA OF THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE OTHER FOUR (FRENCH) 1.01 3. GV JOURNALISTS WRITING 1.05 4. SCU PILLER TALKS OF THEIR SUSPICIONS AT FINDING PEOPLE WITH BULLET HOLES IN THEIR HEADS AND A PLASTIC BAG COVERING FACE, BUT NO HOLES IN THE BAG (FRENCH) (2 SHOTS) 1.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
  • Embargoed: 23rd October 1994 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: FRIBOURG, SWITZERLAND
  • Reuters ID: LVAAWFXJ18G4PDMLN9EDZBCGRFYJ
  • Story Text: Some of the members of a doomsday cult who died in two Swiss villages this week were murdered, the magistrate conducting the inquiry said on Saturday (October 8).

    "We spoke at first of a collective suicide," Andrei Piller told a news conference. "We can today affirm that for certain cases it was not suicide but murder." A total of 48 people, all believed linked to a secretive "Order of the Solar Temple", were found dead on Wednesday in Cheiry and Granges in Switzerland and five more at Morin Heights near Montreal in Canada's Quebec province.

    Police initially thought they may have been involved in a mass "death pact". But Piller said on Saturday: "There was perhaps suicide for certain people or groups, but for some there was murder." The magistrate would not say if the leaders of the cult, French Canadian businessman Joseph di Mambro, 70, and Belgian homeopathic doctor Luc Jouret, 46, were among the bodies found in Switzerland.

    But he confirmed a international arrest warrants have been issued for the two men.

    Asked about reports from Canada that the cult leaders were involved in arms trafficking bringing in large sums of money, Piller said studies of bank accounts were continuing but added: "I can confirm that we will have some astonishing surprises."
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