The saga of the MIVILUDES (Mission Interministerielle de Vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectarie) continues. Despite being ‘slapped down’ by the Paris Administrative Court, which ordered MIVILUDES in a ruling on 21 February 2025 to correct its publications due to ‘inaccurate or unverified information’, on 8 April 2025 – only a month and a half later – it published its new annual report in line with its modus operandi of stuffing the reported news with inaccurate or unverified information.
FRANCE: The New Annual Report of Miviludes and Jehovah’s Witnesses
An analysis of MIVILUDES’ Report of Activities 2022-2024 published on 8 April 2025
HRWF (12.04.2025) – On April 8, 2025, the Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight Against Cultic Abuses (Miviludes) released its new annual activity report, a few weeks after a new order issued by the Paris Administrative Court to delete certain passages from its 2021 Report [1].
While its president, Étienne APAIRE, declared to Le Figaro that he was “more interested in behaviors than in movements” in order “to spend as little time in court as possible,” now using “a breakdown by type of movement” [2], several pages specifically attack Jehovah’s Witnesses with a blatant lack of intellectual honesty.
Biased and incomplete references to European Case Law
While Miviludes appears to want to refer more broadly to court decisions, its selection proves to be highly biased. For example, Box 3, entitled “The Ostracism of Excommunicated Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Origin of Several Convictions in Europe,” focuses on a few provisional convictions in order to “provide food for thought” (p. 50). But wouldn’t “thought” be more relevant and legally rigorous if all European case law were taken into account without bias?
Norway
The first judgment about the announced liquidation of Jehovah’s Witnesses due to their policy concerning the relations between their members and excluded members which was cited in the report was rendered on March 4, 2024 by the Oslo District Court (Norway). It is surprising that it pays more attention to this non-final first-instance judgment than to the decision of the Norwegian Supreme Court on May 3, 2022, dismissing the appeal of a former Jehovah’s Witness [3]. All the more so since the first judgement has just been overturned on appeal [4]! Noteworthy as well is the fact that the Borgarting Court of Appeal prefers to use the expression “social distancing” rather than “ostracism” or any other term with an intrinsically negative connotation [5].
Switzerland
The second judgment dates back to 2019 (outside the report’s active period: 2022-2024) and is part of a defamation trial, in which an anti-cult activist was acquitted from charges of defamation filed against her by the Swiss Jehovah’s Witnesses. Two academics published a white paper on this case and the real impact of the District Court of Zurich’s assessment on this issue [6].
Spain
As for the third legal reference, where the Court of Torrejón de Ardoz in Spain had to rule in 2023 on whether the seriousness of the statements made by members of an anti-cult association could justify its dissolution and not on the legality of the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ doctrine on exclusion and social distancing. Moreover, it is dishonest to use this judgment rather than the other two in which the same court recognized the defamatory nature of the accusations made by this same anti-cult association [7].
Belgium
Last but not least, would it not have been objective to take up the other judicial decisions taken in Europe on the issue of exclusion and social distancing during the period examined by this report, i.e. between 2022 and 2024? For example, the 2021 Activity Report of Miviludes mentioned the conviction of the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses by the Criminal Court of East Flanders (Ghent division) in Belgium (p. 69). It would have been logical in the new report of Miviludes to point out that the Ghent Court of Appeal had overturned this judgment, had acquitted the association on June 7, 2022, and then that the Court of Cassation had rejected the appeal of the former Jehovah’s Witnesses on December 19, 2023, confirming hereby the decision in favor of Jehovah’s Witnesses [8]. Miviludes did not have this intellectual honesty.
Various facts in the report not attributable to the religion
Probably to give greater credibility to the criticism levelled at so-called cultic movements, the report lists the most significant judicial convictions from 2022 to 2024. Two cases have a link with Jehovah’s Witnesses, but are rather general news than a condemnation of the movement.
One is the conviction by the Seine-et-Marne Assize Court of a man who tried to kill his wife, even though the couple were Jehovah’s Witnesses (p. 55, 56). Far from being representative of the members of this religious community, such people commit crimes in violation of the morality agenda advocated by the group to which they belong. This happens in all religions, through no fault of their own, and for any other religion, the evildoer’s membership of the Catholic Church, Judaism or Islam would not even be mentioned by the media.
What’s more, it’s ridiculous to claim that this man would have considered killing his wife rather than divorcing her, for fear of being excluded from the Jehovah’s Witness community and being kept at distance from the community. On the one hand, divorce is not a reason for exclusion and social distancing, all the more so if his wife took the initiative of asking for it. On the other hand, since he had extramarital relations known to his wife, he was particularly at risk of being expelled from the community for this reason.
Paradoxically, the other legal case linked to Jehovah’s Witnesses is the attack perpetrated on March 10, 2023, in Hamburg (p. 64). What does this case, currently under investigation, and moreover abroad, have to do with the Miviludes panorama of convictions in France, when Jehovah’s Witnesses are the victims of this attack and the criminal was already no longer a Jehovah’s Witness [9]? Unlike the reactions of support and solidarity in Germany, France and elsewhere [10], is Miviludes taking advantage of the opportunity to argue and hold Jehovah’s Witnesses responsible for the attacks of which they are unjustly victims [11]? Everything shows that this fit of madness was not provoked by his time spent with Jehovah’s Witnesses, nor by his voluntary withdrawal about a year and a half earlier [12]:
- According to a police representative, he was not only in conflict with his former community: this thirty-year-old “harbored a rage against members of religious congregations, in particular against Jehovah’s Witnesses and his previous employer” [13].
- As his online publications, his book and his professional fees show, he clearly had serious psychological problems [14].
- He did not grow up in a Jehovah’s Witness family, since it is indicated sometimes that he was born “into an ultra-Catholic family” [15], and sometimes that he “was raised in a ‘strict’ Evangelical family” [16].
Between testimonies and truncated quotations
Part of the report is devoted to the social distancing practised by Jehovah’s Witnesses in the context of exclusion proceedings, using extracts from their publications, quotations from testimonies received by Miviludes and books published by former members (p. 48, 49).
As the Jehovah’s Witnesses organization demonstrates real transparency by making all its publications available on its website, Miviludes was able to freely seek out their teachings on exclusion and social distancing recommended towards the excluded members. Alas, failing to find any truly problematic statements, Miviludes selected sentences it could manipulate by taking them out of context, for the purpose of stigmatization.
Such is the case with the leading article published in La Tour de Garde (Watch Tower) in August 2024, which revised the movement’s view on how to behave towards those who are no longer Jehovah’s Witnesses [17]. Miviludes’ report repeated the recommendation not to greet or invite “apostates” to services, presenting it as if it applied to all excluded members (p. 49).
In fact, the article precisely explained that the Bible verse of 2 John 1:9-11 [18] was aimed only at those who oppose the teaching of Christ, that is, those who seek to discourage and turn away faithful Jehovah’s Witnesses. However, apostates who fight against their former community represent a marginal group among all those who leave Jehovah’s Witnesses or who are expelled from the community. The majority of disfellowshipped people can therefore be warmly invited and welcomed to meetings of Jehovah’s Witnesses or even greeted on other occasions. Miviludes’ report also mentions selected extracts from the testimonies received, without any hindsight, despite the questioning by two academics of this methodology only based on referrals (“saisines” in French), simple requests and sending of information sent to Miviludes [19]. However, the report recalls that Miviludes has no investigative powers (p. 16). It cannot therefore verify the facts and circumstances, nor request the contradictory version of the accused persons. How reliable and useful is a state body that bases its publications and actions exclusively on the denunciations of others, without the slightest credible investigation?
Source: Rapport d’activité 2022-2024, Miviludes, 8 avril 2025.
Notes
[1] ⬆︎ Jan Leonid Bornstein, « France : Miviludes Convicted for Having Stigmatized a Kibbutz », The European Times, 5 March 2025.
[2] ⬆︎ Dérives sectaires : “Les faits commis par les gourous sont de plus en plus graves”, Le Figaro, p. 10, 11.
[3] ⬆︎ Massimo Introvigne, “Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway : The Supreme Court Corrects a Mistake”, Bitter Winter, May 13, 2022.
[4] ⬆︎ Willy Fautré, « Deregistration attempt of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Norway declared invalid by the Court of Appeal », The European Times, 16 March 2025.
[5] ⬆︎ Massimo Introvigne, « Norway, Jehovah’s Witnesses “Fully Vindicated” By Appeal Court », Bitter Winter, March 19, 2025.
[6] ⬆︎ Massimo Introvigne, Alessandro Amicarelli, The New Gnomes of Zurich : The Spiess-Jehovah’s Witnesses Case and Its Manipulation by Anti-Cult and Russian Propaganda (White Paper), 2020.
[7] ⬆︎ Massimo Introvigne, “A Court Ruled Against Itself : A Strange Spanish Decision on the Jehovah’s Witnesses”, Bitter Winter, December 18, 2023.
[8] ⬆︎ “BELGIUM : The Court of Cassation upholds the right of Jehovah’s Witnesses to exclude members”, HRWF, 30 December 2023 ; Massimo Introvigne, “The Ghent Saga Ends : Belgium Cassation Court Confirms that Shunning Is Lawful”, Bitter Winter, January 4, 2024.
[9] ⬆︎ Moreover, the perpetrator of the massacre did not die from his act but chose to commit suicide.
[10] ⬆︎ Allemagne : Huit morts dans une fusillade dans un centre des Témoins de Jéhovah à Hambourg, Reuters, 10 mars 2023 ; Allemagne : ce que l’on sait sur la fusillade dans un centre des Témoins de Jéhova, L’Express / AFP, 10 mars 2023 ; Allemagne – Fusillade de Hambourg – (10 mars 2023), Ministère de l’Europe et des Affaires étrangères, 10 mars 2023 ; Joint Statement : Shooting Spree In Hamburg Requires Diligence In Reporting And Solidarity With The Attacked Jehovah’s Witnesses, Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, March 11, 2023 ; Déclaration sur la fusillade meurtrière au centre des Témoins de Jéhovah à Hambourg, AIDLR, 11 mars 2023.
[11] ⬆︎ See as well the attitude of the anti-cult activists : Massimo Introvigne, “Blaming the Victims : The Hamburg Shooting and the Jehovah’s Witnesses”, Bitter Winter, March 18, 2023.
[12] ⬆︎ German gunman kills 6 at Hamburg Jehovah’s Witness hall, Associated Press, March 10, 2023.
[13] ⬆︎ Allemagne : la police avait été prévenue de la dangerosité de l’auteur de la tuerie de Hambourg, RFI, 11 mars 2023
[14] ⬆︎ Pascale Hugues, Hambourg : l’auteur de l’attaque avait été signalé, Le Point, 11 mars 2023 ; Fusillade à Hambourg : Que sait-on de l’auteur de la tuerie contre des Témoins de Jéhovah ?, 20 Minutes / AFP, 11 mars 2023.
[15] ⬆︎ Pascale Hugues, Hambourg : l’auteur de l’attaque avait été signalé, Le Point, 11 mars 2023.
[16] ⬆︎ Fusillade à Hambourg : Que sait-on de l’auteur de la tuerie contre des Témoins de Jéhovah ?, 20 Minutes / AFP, 11 mars 2023.
[17] ⬆︎ Help for Those Who Are Removed From the Congregation, The Watchtower—Study Edition, August 2024, p. 26-31.
[18] ⬆︎ 2 John 1:9-11 : “Everyone who pushes ahead and does not remain in the teaching of the Christ does not have God. The one who does remain in this teaching is the one who has both the Father and the Son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your homes or say a greeting to him. For the one who says a greeting to him is a sharer in his wicked works.” (New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures)
[19] ⬆︎ Massimo Introvigne, A Swiss Criticism of the French MIVILUDES : “Opaque Methods, Imprecise Data”, Bitter Winter, August 26, 2024.
Massimo Introvigne, Feet of Clay: The French Miviludes Acknowledges the Faulty Basis of Its Reports, Bitter Winter, September 14, 2022: The “saisines” are alerts by those who write to the MIVILUDES, or use a web form, to denounce a “cultic deviance.” We objected that there is no verification that those sending a “saisines” to the MIVILUDES exist, let alone tell the truth, and mentioned the case of an American scholar who had successfully registered with the French governmental mission a “saisine” signed by Napoleon Bonaparte.
Manéli Farahmand, Fabrice Berna, “Health-related cultic deviances : A comparison between France and Switzerland”, Hegel, 2024/2, Vol. 14 : “Part 1. Defining and managing risks within cults”, p. 155-174 ; “Part 2. Assessment and overview of health-related cultic deviances”, p. 175-194.
Source: HRWF
