In 2001 Swiss composer and orchestral conductor Michel Tabachnik was tried in the Grenoble criminal court, over his involvement in the Order of the Solar Temple (OTS) religious movement.

The Solar Temple was an esoteric and eclectic new religious movement and secret society, often described as a cult, that had been involved in several high profile mass-murder suicides in the 1990s.

The Swiss investigations did not establish any connection between Tabachnik and the 1994 deaths, and his involvement in the group then received little public notice.

After the second mass suicide in France in 1995, several journalists implicated Tabachnik in the deaths, accusing him of being more involved than had been suggested and saying the group had reunified behind him.

[1][2] In June 1977, Tabachnik had met Joseph Di Mambro, the creator of a spiritual commune called le Pyramid.

[2] Following several difficulties experienced by the group, including investigations and ex-member criticism, the leaders planning a of "transit"; the idea of a "voluntary departure of templars to another dimension in space".

[9] They conceptualized the transit as a ritual involving magic fire, where they would undergo a spiritual voyage to the star Sirius.

[7][11][2] In October 1994, the first transit killed 53 people, 48 in Switzerland and five in Canada; several of the dead did not consent to death or were directly murdered for being "traitors".

Due to documents found related to the group, the police were able to understand the workings of the community and recognize some of its members, including Tabachnik.

[24] Later, Swiss journalist Arnaud Bédat acquired photos claimed to directly implicate Tabachnik in the OTS's actions.

[29] In his defense, Tabachnik published the book Bouc émissaire: Dans le piège du Temple Solaire, with a preface by Pierre Boulez.

[34][35] Fontaine was interviewed in the 2000 book L'Ordre du Temple solaire: Les Secrets d'une manipulation, by Bédat, Bouleau, and Bernard Nicholas.

[44] The other camp was led by the anti-cult group UNADFI who believed that Tabachnik and his writings were the cause of the mass suicides, and that cults must be eradicated.

Among the testimonies given, some were shocked and angry at the group and the acts committed, while others remained faithful to Di Mambro and to the transit to Sirius.

[46] On the tenth day, the prosecutor demanded 5 years' imprisonment for Tabachnik's alleged role in the conditioning of the Temple's followers.

[7][48][20] The prosecution painted him as one of the higher ups of the organization; the psychiatrist Jean-Marie Abgrall, called as an expert for the trial, said that Tabachnik's influence within the group was unclear.

[7][49] Szpiner argued that by the time the records showed the massacre was being planned, Tabachnik was no longer participating in the OTS.

[20][16] When questioned, he declared that they were merely "amateur" writings, a set of notes that had been read to Di Mambro that he had liked and decided to make high-level teachings of the group.

[21][52][55][56] They claimed there were a number of inconsistencies in the investigation, such as the fact that the organic environment around the bodies of the dead was intact and showed no trace of fire.

[55][56] They, led by Alain Vuarnet, hoped to prove that Fontaine's investigation had been mistaken, and that the followers had actually been murdered by outside forces.

[57][58][56][21] The bodies were found to contain excess phosphorus, which Alain Vuarnet claimed was a sign that they had actually been executed with a flamethrower.

[52][32] In the end, the forensic experts considered that this analysis added nothing new to the case and did not call into question Judge Fontaine's decision.

[56] UNAFDI's lawyer argued this theory was irrational, and that the families wanted to believe it because it gave a rational explanation where none existed.

[11] During the second trial, filmmaker Yves Boisset, director of a documentary on the case that contested the official narrative, Les Mystères sanglants de l'OTS, testified questioning the mass suicide theory.

[51] The verdict was also criticized during parliamentary debates by several French deputies and senators, along with the acquittal of several Scientologists on fraud charges in France in 1996.

Thus, the OTS was an extremely frustrating case with no closure, no one to blame.As a result of the trial, Tabachnik had lost most of his work as a conductor and had to pause his career.

[18][6] Speaking on his involvement with the OTS and the trials, Tabachnik appeared in two 2022 documentary series on the case, Temple Solaire: l'enquête impossible and La Fraternité.

It took two years to convince Tabachnik to be interviewed for La Fraternité; director Pierre Morath described him as "traumatized" by the whole affair and that it was "almost a miracle" he had agreed, with a fear that people would distort his words as had happened before.

[70] During an interview for the promotion of the series, Bédat stated he had changed his mind and no longer believed that Tabachnik had planned the deaths, and that him being away in concert had perhaps stopped him from being killed as well.

[71] He further viewed the case as indicating that "one can confidently state that the main conclusions of the Swiss and French investigations match reality, insofar as we base our analysis on available evidence", but that this could not convince the relatives of the OTS members, who "are left with sad memories of the tragic fate of their loved ones and feelings of helplessness that justice has not been done.