A French court will on Wednesday begin trying a cult chief for suspected rapes, violence with weapons, blackmailing for money, illegal medical exercise and using clandestine laborers.

Agence France-Presse reported that Jacques Gonzalez, 49, and his former lover, Nicole Remy, 44, will stand trial until Friday evening when the Assize Court of Albi near Toulouse announces its judgment.

Gonzalez, who has been jailed since May 1997, is considered as the chief or "guru" of a cult community established in a village called Algans in Haute-Garonne, southwest France, from 1980 to 1997, with a dozen followers, said the victims of the cult.

The cult community was dismantled in 1997 by the French gendarmerie after an anonymous denunciation was made by a cult member who was subjected to violence, illegal confinement and forcible medical treatment.

Another member of the cult also accused Gonzalez of raping her with violence.

The cult also practiced tough rules and physical punishment against its members, including electric blows, whips and false executions, which were often personally carried out by the guru himself but also between the followers.

Police said that Gonzalez has a perverse personality including narcissism, and had constantly changed his names and identities.

Police said that Gonzalez has a perverse personality including narcissism, and had constantly changed his names and identities.

(Xinhuanet 02/20/2001)