Paris, France - A French court has acquitted two Opus Dei followers and an association closely linked to the conservative Catholic group of charges they forced a disciple to work.
A spokeswoman for Opus Dei welcomed the decision. A lawyer for the plaintiff said she would appeal.
The trial was based on a complaint by Catherine Tissier, who says she worked for more than a decade for little or no pay as a “numerary assistant” at a hotel school linked to Opus Dei.
Defense lawyers had portrayed the case as one about labor law. But the trial drew attention to practices of the secretive group, portrayed in Dan Brown’s bestseller “The Da Vinci Code” as a murderous, power-hungry sect. The group vigorously protests this view.