Editing Order of the Solar Temple (section)

=== Legal proceedings ===
[[File:Grenoble - Ancien musée-bibliothèque - 2017-09-29.jpg|thumb|Grenoble's former museum-library, the location of the 2001 trial]]
{{Main|Trial of Michel Tabachnik}}

On 23 December 1995, during the ''[[journal de 13 heures]]'' program on the French channel [[TF1]], journalist [[Gilles Bouleau]] claimed that the group had survived and united behind [[Michel Tabachnik]], indirectly declaring that Tabachnik was the mastermind behind the Vercors incident.{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023c|loc=23:15–25:10}} Tabachnik was investigated following the incident; Fontaine placed him under examination on 12 June 1996 for [[conspiracy]].{{sfn|Clusel|Palmer|2020|p=233}} 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. The examining magistrate 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.{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023c|loc=42:40–43:08}}

On 13 April 2001, at the [[Grenoble]] Museum-Library, which had been transformed for the occasion, the court trial of Michel Tabachnik for "criminal conspiracy" began. The plaintiffs' side split into two camps; one camp, led by Alain Vuarnet, felt that the trial should not focus on Tabachnik's responsibility but on the investigation itself, which they felt had not been thorough. Another, led by the anti-cult group [[UNADFI]], believed that Tabachnik and his writings were the cause of the mass suicides, and that cults must be eradicated.{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023d|loc=7:50–8:27}}{{sfn|Mayer|2014|p=49}} On 25 June 2001, the court acquitted Tabachnik, on the basis that there had been no conclusive proof found of any involvement, and his writings accused of influencing the members into death were deemed unlikely to have influenced them.{{sfn|Mayer|2014|p=49}} The [[Ministère public (France)|public prosecutor]] appealed the criminal court's decision, and Tabachnik was tried again in a second trial beginning 24 October 2006.{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023d|loc=39:26–40:20}} The appeals court upheld the lower court's ruling, and he was acquitted a second time in December 2006.{{sfn|Morath|Lemasson|2023d|loc=40:45–41:00}}{{sfn|Mayer|2014|p=49}}