by Alessandro Amicarelli — In its ruling of 16 June 2025 in civil case no. 7879/2023, Section II of the Florence Tribunal ruled against the Italian Association of Victims of Cults (AIVS) for actions carried out online targeting the Soka Gakkai Buddhist Institute, based in Florence.
What led to this ruling?
The inhumane practice of organ harvesting, to which Falun Gong members imprisoned in China are subjected, was the subject of the documentary film “Free China: The Courage to Believe,” which helped break down the wall of silence and ignorance on the subject. But Beijing government's constant efforts to export its negative propaganda against Falun Gong continue to cause damage in Russia —and elsewhere— as the following article tells us.
2025 is proving to be an annus horribilis for MIVILUDES, the French anti-cult state organization (Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires – Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances). On July 11, in fact, the Administrative Court of Paris issued the 5th sentence against MIVILUDES for refusing to delete from its 2021 report some defamatory phrases to the detriment of the Christian congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses. The story goes hand in hand with the judgment of ...
Italy has recently seen the proposal of a law intended to punish mental manipulation, particularly ascribed to so-called “cults,” with prison sentences ranging from three to eight years. In an interview published by Bitter Winter, attorney Alessandro Amicarelli, chairman of Freedom of Belief (FOB), speaks with sociologist Massimo Introvigne, director of CESNUR, who raises serious concerns about the effectiveness and legitimacy of the proposed law.
By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers — On 30 June, Donatien Le Vaillant, the head of the MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and Combating Cultic Abuses) since 31 January 2023 "left" his duties, according to an official statement. This Deputy Inspector General of Justice officially "wanted" to return to his senior position at the General Inspectorate of Administration. However, according to the French weekly Marianne, his departure was ...
By Victoria Arnold — A Moscow court jailed Buddhist leader Ilya Vasilyev on 25 June for eight years for allegedly disseminating "knowingly false information" about Russia's Armed Forces, the longest known prison term for opposing Russia's war against Ukraine on religious grounds. "We called for the voice of reason, but it seems the judge heard only the voice of the prosecutor's office," his lawyer Gevorg Aleksanyan said. A court spokesperson refused comment on the verdict or why the Judge refuses a prison visit from a Buddhist priest.
We are pleased to announce the release of a compelling new work by Prof. David W. Kim, respected scholar and member of the Scientific Committee of the European Federation for Freedom of Belief (FOB). In Silk Road Footprints: Transnational Transmission of Sacred Thoughts and Historical Legacy, Prof. Kim re-examines the Silk Road not merely as a highway of goods and empires, but as a fertile conduit of sacred ideas, religious traditions, and evolving identities.
From June 26 to 28, 2025, scholars from across Europe and beyond gathered at Vilnius University’s Old Town Campus for the 10th Biennial Conference of the European Society for the Study of Western Esotericism (ESSWE). Marking the society’s 20th anniversary, this milestone event explored the theme “Esotericism and Rationality”, challenging long-held assumptions about the boundaries between mystical thought and intellectual rigor.
FOB had already dealt with Guru Jára's affair with a series of four articles written four-handedly by Alessandro Amicarelli, FOB president, and Massimo Introvigne, editor of Bitter Winter. Pavel Hlavinka, associate professor at Palacký University, also wrote about Guru Jára declaring himself to be a disciple of his. This did not pass unnoticed by a zealous intolerant journalist (...)
This complaint adds to the collection of criticisms of MIVILUDES by internationally renowned scholars and complaints filed by religious denominations considered by MIVILUDES to be “responsible for sectarian drifts.” Taking a stand against some of the allegations in MIVILUDES' 2024 annual report is the Impact Centre Chrétien, a French Evangelical Protestant Church.
Since January 2024, the Union Nationale des Associations de Défense des Familles et de l'Individu (UNADFI) has been receiving a grant of 150,000 euros, courtesy of MIVILUDES. Officially, this public boon is supposed to fund a project to “digitize and share documentation” of the association, which is presented as a “heritage”. But upon closer inspection, the operation looks more like budget manipulation, technocratic window dressing, and accounting that lacks transparency.
The European Bureau for Conscientious Objection (EBCO) published an annual report which calls to release all prisoners of conscience in Ukraine, including those detained on Russia-occupied territories and those who suffered abuses because of harsh military mobilization for Ukrainian defensive war against Russian aggression. The report outlines 15 names of conscientious objectors that must be immediately released by Ukraine, including those imprisoned after conviction and held in pre-trial detention under Articles 336 (draft evasion) and 402 (disobedience) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and those detained in military units ...
On June 4, 2025, multiple cities across the UK, including London, Kingston, Manchester, and Birmingham, held events to mark the 36th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. In London, commemorative activities took place both during the day and in the evening, including seminars and street memorials, drawing participants from all walks of life who are concerned with Chinese democracy and human rights.
Thirteen Christians in Jiangmen and Foshan, Guangdong Province, were sentenced by CCP’s people’s courts to prison terms ranging from two years and three months to four years and six months, solely for engaging in normal religious activities such as hosting church fellows for gatherings, storing books related to their faith, and preaching the gospel.
UCA News — Sri Lanka’sSupreme Court has ordered the state to compensate four Christians for violating their fundamental rights, ten years after police arrested them for preaching the Christian faith door-to-door. The Supreme Court, on May 22, ordered the officer-in-charge of the police station in Walasmulla town to pay 50,000 rupees (some US$165) to each of the petitioners, and the state to pay an additional 25,000 rupees to each one for breaching their fundamental rights.
Washington D.C. – The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) strongly condemns increasing attacks against members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community in Pakistan. On May 16, Dr. Sheik Mahmood, an Ahmadi Muslim man, was shot and killed in Sargodha. Earlier this month, on Sunday, May 11, Tahir Mahmood and Ijaz Hussain, both Ahmadi Muslim men, were arrested in Karachi for offering Friday prayers. During their court appearance on May 12, both men were violently dragged from the courtroom and assaulted by mobs, resulting in the death of Tahir Mahmood.
By Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights Without Frontiers — Jehovah’s Witnesses are not allowed any more to provide spiritual assistance to inmates upon their request due to new regulations issued by the Director General of the Penitentiary Administration. On 22 August 2023, he sent a circular letter instructing prison administrations across Belgium to prohibit access to ministers of non-recognised religions for chaplaincy activities.
Miviludes forced to pay €1,500 twice to CAP Liberté de conscience
by Willy Fautré, director of Human Rights without Frontiers — On 15 May, MIVILUDES (Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight Against Cultic Deviances) was again convicted in two cases brought before the Paris Administrative Court by the association CAP Liberté de conscience. In both cases, MIVILUDES was required to pay the sum of €1,500 for financial compensation to the said association.
by Steno Sari — The media have an inescapable responsibility: to ensure an accurate, comprehensive and profoundly respectful flow of information on human dignity. This mission is often betrayed by dynamics that turn journalism into a dangerous instrument of media lynching. Public pillorying, amplified by media resonance, is an ethically abominable practice, as it tramples on cardinal principles of legal and moral civilisation: the presumption of innocence, the inviolable right to privacy and the inherent respect due to every individual.
The Constitutional Court of Ukraine found admissible a complaint of conscientious objector to military service, Vitalii Alekseienko, and will check alleged unconstitutionality of jailing for three to five years for draft evasion during mobilization those citizens whose religion or beliefs are incompatible with the performance of military duty (conscientious objectors), and will check also alleged unconstitutionality of requirements for believers to prove in court their innocence in evading the draft, the absence of an alternative non-military service during the war and its inaccessibility to persons who do not belong to privileged religious organizations.
