Paris (France) (AFP) - Twenty-two people went on trial in France on Monday on charges of murder and other serious crimes centred on members of a Masonic lodge accused of running hit squads.

Thirteen of the defendants face life imprisonment.

Those in the dock include four military personnel from France’s foreign intelligence service (DGSE), two police officers, a retired domestic intelligence officer, a security guard and two business executives.

They are accused of the murder of a racing driver, the attempted murders of a business coach and a trade unionist, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy – all on behalf of a mafia network inside the former Athanor Masonic Lodge in the Paris suburb of Puteaux.

Several freemasons from the 20 or so members of the lodge are in the dock.

Most of the accused, aged between 30 and 73, have no previous criminal records.

Five of the suspects are in custody and 16 are under judicial supervision, while one woman is appearing in court as a free person.

The alleged ringleaders are Athanor freemasons Jean-Luc Bagur, Frederic Vaglio and Daniel Beaulieu. They face life in jail if convicted.

So does Beaulieu’s right-hand man Sebastien Leroy, who was not a member of the freemason lodge. He is accused of carrying out the trio’s dirty work himself or through a hitman network.

The case was triggered by a botched contract killing in July 2020, when two members of the military were arrested in possession of weapons near the home of business coach Marie-Helene 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 Israel’s Mossad spy agency.

- Escalating crimes -

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.

According to the investigation, Bagur asked fellow freemason Vaglio to arrange to have his rival eliminated for a fee of 70,000 euros ($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, now 72, a retired agent for the domestic intelligence service (DGSI).

The leader of the hit squad, Leroy, admitted in police custody that he or his associates carried out most of the Athanor mafia’s assaults, robberies and murders – including the killing of a racing car driver.

As time went on, the crimes ordered by the freemason mafia escalated from petty revenge attacks to homicide, the investigation showed.

In a case of industrial espionage, Leroy’s gang allegedly assaulted a businesswoman in the street and snatched her computer.

The car of one of Bagur’s associates went up in flames in 2019 after she discovered evidence of financial fraud within his company.

In 2018, the body of racing driver Laurent Pasquali was found in a forest.

He had been bumped off, allegedly for not paying a debt he owed to friends of Vaglio’s.

- ‘Terrifying’ -

Leroy, a security guard, told police he thought he had been acting all the time on behalf of the government.

He complained that Beaulieu had “manipulated” him and dangled the idea of him becoming an informant for French intelligence services.

Jean-William Vezinet, the lawyer of targeted business coach Dini, said: “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.”

It is unclear what information the prosecution may be able to extract from alleged ringleader Beaulieu.

He made an apparent attempt to kill himself in police custody, which left him with a disability and “impaired concentration”, his lawyer told AFP.

The trial is expected to run for at least three months.