Marie-Hélène Dini is lucky to be alive.
On a warm morning in July 2020, two men were waiting in a black Renault Clio outside her home in Créteil, a quiet suburb on the edge of Paris.
Given the summer heat, they were clearly overdressed. One wore gloves and dark clothing. The other had a green balaclava covering his face.
In the footwell of the car lay a loaded Browning pistol, 9mm rounds and a makeshift silencer. Beneath Ms Dini's own vehicle, investigators would later discover that a tracking device had been fixed to it.
The plan, prosecutors say, was simple. Wait for the 54-year-old business coach and hypnotist to leave her flat. Approach. Shoot. Leave.
Instead, chance intervened.
Ms Dini was running late. Meanwhile, a neighbour noticed the two men sitting in the car, their attire jarringly out of place in the July heat, and called the police.
Minutes later, officers surrounded the vehicle.
Inside, they found Carl Esnault, 25, and Pierre Bourdin, 28, two former French parachutists. When challenged, the pair calmly explained that they were secret agents.
Using the code names "Adélard" and "Dagomar", the two men told officers that they had been tasked with eliminating a Mossad operative. The target, they said, was a woman living nearby: Marie-Hélène Dini.
The reality, investigators would later conclude, was very different, and their claim will now be tested in court as a major trial opened in Paris on Monday.
Twenty-two defendants are in the dock, accused of belonging to a shadowy criminal network linked to members of the Athanor Masonic lodge in Puteaux, allegedly responsible for a string of violent crimes, including murder and attempted murder.
The Athanor lodge, affiliated to the Grande Loge de l'Alliance maçonnique française (GL-AMF), was dissolved in 2021 after the affair came to light.
Its name, drawn from alchemy, refers to a furnace designed to transform base metals into gold and, symbolically, to a "philosophical furnace" where Freemasons are meant to pursue inner improvement away from the outside world.
GL-AMF said it had acted swiftly once informed of the investigation, denouncing behaviour "in total contradiction with the values of Freemasonry" and presenting the lodge as having been hijacked by individuals who betrayed its principles of integrity and fraternity.
At the time of the arrests, Ms Dini was hurrying out of her flat. Already behind schedule, she walked towards the street and noticed a cluster of police officers gathered around a car.
When she asked what was happening at around 8.30am, she was told to move along.
It would be another 24 hours before she learned the truth. Police summoned her back to her home and when she arrived, investigators were waiting outside. They told her bluntly: "Madam, you have been the victim of an attempted murder."
Her first instinct was disbelief. "It's a joke," she thought. But it was no laughing matter.
Officers searched her flat, seized computers and questioned her for hours about whether she might have any link, however remote, to Israeli intelligence.
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"This is absurd. I have never set foot in Israel," she told them.
What she did learn, however, was chilling.
"I learnt that my life was worth only €70,000 (£61,000)," she said.
That aborted killing now sits at the centre of the case before the Paris assize court, where 13 of the 22 defendants face life imprisonment.
Those in the dock include military personnel from France's foreign intelligence service, police officers, a retired domestic intelligence agent, a security guard and several business executives. Most have no previous criminal records.
Clandestine criminal network
Prosecutors allege that behind this unlikely cast operated a clandestine network whose activities escalated from intimidation to homicide.
The alleged ringleaders are Athanor Freemasons Jean-Luc Bagur, Frédéric Vaglio and Daniel Beaulieu, all of whom deny wrongdoing. Also facing life imprisonment is Mr Beaulieu's associate, Sébastien Leroy, accused of organising or carrying out attacks through a network of operatives.
Investigators say the alleged brains behind the plot identified the client behind the contract on Ms Dini as Mr Bagur, a rival business coach, under questioning.
According to her lawyer, the dispute stemmed from her attempts to create a professional association for corporate coaching, which Mr Bagur believed would exclude his own business.
Ms Dini had met him several times in 2019 as they discussed organising the sector.
"I knew that we didn't agree. I wouldn't say he was someone particularly warm and friendly, but at no time could I have imagined that things would go to this length," she said.
Investigators say Mr Bagur asked Mr Vaglio to arrange the killing for €70,000. Mr Vaglio allegedly acted as an intermediary, turning to Mr Beaulieu, a retired intelligence officer, who then mobilised a network led by Mr Leroy.
It was through this chain, prosecutors believe, that the two would-be hitmen came to be sitting in the Clio that July morning.
Central to the case is the claim by several defendants that they believed they were acting on behalf of the state. Mr Bourdin and Mr Esnault said they had thought that Ms Dini was a Mossad agent. Mr Leroy told police he had believed that he was working for French intelligence and had been "manipulated".
Investigators say the Mossad story was a fabrication used to legitimise criminal contracts.
Pattern of escalating violence
As the inquiry widened, detectives uncovered what they described as a pattern of escalating violence. Ms Dini herself had been assaulted in 2019, when attackers beat her and stole her computer, warning her to stop her activities.
Other alleged crimes include the murder of Laurent Pasquali, a racing driver whose body was found in a forest in 2018, and plots targeting business rivals and a trade unionist.
Jean-William Vezinet, Ms Dini's lawyer, said the case was particularly disturbing because of those involved.
"What my client found terrifying is the fact that the key figures in this case – police officers, former intelligence agents and Freemasons – are precisely the people who are supposed to act for the good of society," he said.
The trial is expected to last at least three months.
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