Gregorian Bivolaru

Gregorian Bivolaru, born in Tărtășești, Ilfov County, (now in Dâmbovița County), Romania, completed high school in Bucharest, he joined a predecessor to the Bucharest Metro company as an unskilled labourer in 1971. He began practicing yoga at the age of 17.[5]

During the communist regime Gregorian Bivolaru was kept under observation by the Department of State Security, because he was practicing and teaching yoga, yoga being outlawed in Romania at that time. He was jailed twice and forcefully hospitalized in a psychiatric ward once. In 2012 two courts acknowledged that Gregorian Bivolaru was sentenced and jailed for political reasons during the communist regime (pornography was also illegal during the communist regime) ("the political nature of the convictions decided against the claimant by penal sentence no. 68/1977, penal sentence no. 960/1984 and of the claimant's hospitalization ruled against him by penal sentence no. 616/1989").[6]

In 1977, he was arrested on the charge of distributing pornographic materials and sentenced to one year in prison, but he did not complete it due to an amnesty granted for all minor convictions by the President of Romania Nicolae Ceauşescu on his birthday.[7] On 17 April 1984 he was arrested again for the distribution of pornographic materials.[8] He was locked up in a Securitate cell, from which he managed to escape. He was captured a few days afterwards, then tried only on the charges of escaping from prison and sentenced to 18 months in jail.

On 17 August 1989 he was arrested again, on the grounds that he was mentally unhinged and a menace to the general public. Prosecutors requested he be hospitalized, which was granted two days later on 19 August 1989 by the sector 1 Tribunal of Bucharest based on a report submitted by National Institute for Legal Medicine IML. He was sentenced to hospitalization at The Poiana Mare Neuropsychiatry Hospital in Dolj county. In the IML report the diagnostic was schizoid personality disorder, paranoia with obsessive-phobic elements.[8] Apparently confirming the diagnostic of schizoid personality disorder, a psychologist, a close friend of Bivolaru when asked by a young girl in 1983 about attending Bivolaru's courses, advised her to stay clear of him because he is a "psychopath".[9]

In Romania, yoga was forbidden in 1982, in connection with the "Transcendental Meditation scandal", whose victim Gregorian Bivolaru was also. Yoga was illegal in Romania until December 1989, the time of the Romanian Revolution. After it, Gregorian Bivolaru founded the Movement for Spiritual Integration into the Absolute (MISA). MISA has been founded as a non-profit association, by judicial decision on 23 January 1990 by the Court of Bucharest's First District. It has a socio-professional, philosophical and educative character, aiming to increase the spiritual level of people by spreading the yoga knowledge and practices. MISA included bogus lectures on related disciplines such as Kashmirian philosophy and Ayurveda (traditional Indian medicine). The yoga courses were first held in Bucharest but quickly spread all over the country.

Finnish broadcasting company Yle published a program under MOT series on MISA and Gregorian Bivolaru.[10] In the program, ex-Natha members were interviewed. Natha is described as being rooted to Romanian MISA movement. The interviewees described controversial activities like vomiting as a way of purification. Also sexual tendencies like pornography and sexual relations with the teachers and pupils were reported. A representative of Finnish Natha commented that sex is always a matter between the two persons. Seppo Isotalo, a human rights activist who tried to help MISA in confrontation with Romanian authorities, described MISA as follows:

It has all the characteristics of a cult: one truth, one leader, and it isolates the dissident.

— Seppo Isotalo, a Finnish human rights activist

Gregorian Bivolaru was an honorary member of the European Yoga Council until April 2008, when he was expelled from it and from all affiliated branches.

Shri Yogacharya Ajita, as President of the European Yoga Council of European Yoga Alliance and Honorary Secretary of the European Federation of Yoga for the European Union, announced the following to the International Yoga Federation: "My official resolution as president of the European Yoga Council of the European Yoga Alliance is that Mihai Stoian, Grieg Bivolaru and all people linked to the MISA/NATHA organization are immediately expelled from our organization and that we stop their membership, because it has been proven that they are not busy with Yoga in whatever form, that they even use Yoga as a cover for illegal practices, that they do not respect the rules and standards of our organization, that they show an unheard lack of moral integrity, and cannot be convinced to change their attitude."

According to The Times of India, MISA currently operates under different names in different countries. It is Natha in Denmark and Portugal, Tara in the US and UK and Satya in India.[11]

Police abuses were recorded in 1997 by 2 major human rights organizations: APADOR-CH[12] and Amnesty International.[13]

On 18 March 2004 the authorities - prosecutors, police, gendarmes, secret services - started an intimidation campaign documented by the APADOR-CH (the local branch for the International Helsinki Committee for Human Rights)[14] and reported by the IHF 2004 report.[15]

On 28 March 2004 Gregorian Bivolaru was detained for "attempt of fraudulent crossing of the border" at Nadlac Customs, he was taken to Bucharest. The Bucharest Court, had issued an arrest warrant for 29 days on the name of Gregorian Bivolaru, but under another accusation: an alleged sexual relations with a minor.

After two days of investigations, the Appeal Court from Bucharest disposed setting Gregorian Bivolaru free. Although the decision had been taken at 17.00, he was set free only at 23.00 same day, in the meantime he was moved by the gendarmes, wearing hand-cuffs, from The Appeal Court to the Court of Law of district no 5 to Penal Investigations Department, then back to Court of Law of district no. 5, all of these confusing the journalists, the public and his lawyers.

Another warrant of arrest was issued on 31 May 2004 against Bivolaru, who fled the country hidden in a lorry.

In 2005, he was charged with eight counts, including sex with a minor, tax evasion, and illegally crossing the border to escape prosecution.[16] In March 2005, Bivolaru asked for asylum in Sweden, claiming that he feared persecution in Romania. On 4 April 2005 the Swedish police of Malmö detained Bivolaru.

On 15 April the Romanian Police issued a second warrant in his name, in which he was accused of "human trafficking and other charges related to organized crime" (related to an allegedly sequestration of some persons in some ashrams and forcing them to work without being paid).[17]

On 21 October 2005 the Supreme Court of Sweden rejected the extradition request and set Bivolaru free.[18] The Supreme Court judges concluded that Bivolaru would not receive a fair trial in Romania. Anette Swedow, the chief prosecutor in the Gregorian Bivolaru case declared: "The final decision is that should Bivolaru be extradited in Romania, he runs the risk of being deported, persecuted and harassed, because of his religious businesses he applies within the yoga movement."[18]

The Supreme Court decision was based on the expertise of Skop research[19] and Karl Eryk Nylund, sect expert.[20]

This decision was relayed to the Romanian Ministry of Justice on 16 December 2005. In response, the Romanian Justice Minister, Monica Macovei, sent the general prosecutor a request to verify the manner in which the investigations in this case took place. The same request has been sent to the president of the Superior Council of Magistracy (SCM), Dan Lupașcu.

The decision of the Swedish Immigration Authority that Gregorian Bivolaru should be granted political asylum was made public on the last day of 2005.

The lawyers of Gregorian Bivolaru filed two applications to the European Court for Human Rights. The applications cover the violations that occurred while issuing the two arrest warrants.

On 18 January 2011 Bivolaru's trial was, for the tenth time, postponed again until 23 March 2011, marking his case as one of the oldest in the Cluj court.[16][21] This trial for human trafficking is still pending, but the unconstitutionality exceptions invoked by the suspects were already rejected.[22]

The solution in another trial, held at the Sibiu court, was that the charges were dropped, partly due to lack of evidence for some charges (the prosecutors refused to show authorization for performing the taps, considering it a state secret, so evidence was dropped)[23] and partly due to exceeding the statute of limitations corresponding to the charges.[24]

Bivolaru has requested damages from the Romanian state for being sentenced to mandatory psychiatric treatment during the Communist regime.[25]

On 14 June 2013 the High Court of Cassation and Justice of Romania definitively sentenced Gregorian Bivolaru to 6 years in prison, without suspension, for sexual acts with a minor (a 17-year-old girl), D.M., who says she never had sexual relations with Bivolaru, but she was forced to declare so after 10 hours of police investigation in absence of her parents or a lawyer. Furthermore, he was acquitted of all the other charges against him (e.g. trafficking of minors).[2] Also, on the same day, Court Judge Ionuț Matei received a letter threatening him and his family. To announce this he organized a press conference before the final court session .[26]

On 27 February 2016 Bivolaru was arrested in France.[27][28] After extradition from France, he was imprisoned in Romania.[29] He has requested a retrial.[30]

He had to do one year and three months less than six years, since he had already spent this time in detention.[31]

Alba Iulia Court of Appeals had rejected Bivolaru's demand for a retrial.[32]

On 13 September 2017 he was conditionally released from prison.[33] After being conditionally released, Bivolaru fled the country shortly after. At present (2023) he is wanted by Interpol for aggravated trafficking in human beings and sexual assault at the request of Finland.[3] His present whereabouts are unknown.[34]

An article in Huffington Post referred to MISA as a

"dangerous personality cult whose "supreme spiritual leader", Gregorian Bivolaru, has been accused of coercing or seducing hundreds of vulnerable women into producing hard-core porn videos, abandoning their spouses, and in some cases, becoming strippers and prostitutes — all in the name of "liberating" the female body and bringing MISA members into intimate communion with the "Divine Goddess."[35]

"Bivolaru and his chief lieutenants were known to engage in sex with underage girls, some in their early teens. [...] One prominent MISA activity — which the group describes euphemistically as "karma yoga", or service — involves young female MISA members being sent to Japan and other countries to work as pole dancers and strippers."

A Vice article claims that

"as a MISA female member, it was an honour to have sex with guru Gregorian, because it meant positive karma and spiritual progress" [36]

Arabella Agnes Marquez (born Mureșan) claimed in court she was sexually exploited by Gregorian Bivolaru and lost her virginity to him while she was only 15.[37][38]

In one his books, Bivolaru claims Freemasonry is a satanic conspiracy trying to achieve world domination via the establishment of a world masonic government, a world kingdom, as well as a unique world religion.[39]

Gregorian Bivolaru claims to have contact with extraterrestrials who have healing powers.[40][41]

• List of fugitives from justice who disappeared