Twenty-two people are to stand trial in France from Monday on charges of murder and other serious crimes centred on a masonic lodge accused of running hit squads.

Seven defendants – including former intelligence agents, soldiers and businessmen – face possible life sentences. Prosecutors allege the group carried out murder, attempted murder, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy on behalf of a mafia network inside the Athanor lodge in the Paris suburb of Puteaux.

At least four Freemasons from the lodge’s roughly 20 members are among those in the dock. Other defendants include four officers from France’s DGSE foreign intelligence service, three police officers, six executives, a security guard, a doctor and an engineer. Most of the accused, whose ages range from 30 to 73, have no previous criminal record.

The alleged ringleaders are Jean-Luc Bagur, Frédéric Vaglio and Daniel Beaulieu, all members of the lodge, alongside Beaulieu’s right-hand man Sébastien Leroy, accused of carrying out or organising the violence through a network of hired attackers. All four face life imprisonment if convicted.

The case was triggered by a failed contract killing in July 2020, when two members of France’s parachute regiment were arrested in possession of weapons near the home of the business coach Marie-Hélène Dini. They told investigators they believed they had been asked to murder Dini on behalf of the French state, targeting Dini on the grounds that she worked for the Israeli spy agency the Mossad.

Investigators discovered a link to Bagur, 69, a business coach rival of Dini’s and the lodge’s “venerable master”. Investigators say Bagur asked the fellow Freemason Vaglio to arrange to have his rival “eliminated” for a fee of €70,000 ($80,600).

Vaglio, a 53-year-old entrepreneur, allegedly acted as the intermediary between the alleged ringleader and a hit squad led by Beaulieu, a retired officer of the domestic intelligence service (DGSI).

Leroy, the alleged leader of the hit squad, admitted in police custody that he and his associates carried out most of the Athanor mafia’s assaults, robberies and killings – including the murder of a racing driver. Over time, the crimes ordered by the Freemason mafia escalated from petty revenge attacks to homicide.

In one alleged case of industrial espionage, Leroy’s gang is said to have assaulted a businesswoman in the street and stolen her computer. In 2019, the car of one of Bagur’s associates was set alight after she uncovered evidence of financial fraud within his company.

In 2018, the body of the racing driver Laurent Pasquali was found in a forest. French media reported that he had been killed, allegedly over an unpaid debt to associates of Vaglio.

Leroy, who left the military to become a security guard, told police he believed he had been acting on behalf of the government. He claimed Beaulieu had “manipulated” him, raising the prospect of him becoming an informant for the DGSI spy agency.

Dini’s lawyer, Jean-William Vézinet, said: “What my client found terrifying is the fact that the key figures in this case – police officers, former DGSI agents and Freemasons – are precisely the people who are supposed to act for the good of society.”

It is unclear what evidence prosecutors will be able to obtain from Beaulieu, after an apparent suicide attempt in police custody left him disabled and with “impaired concentration”, according to his lawyer. The trial is expected to last at least three months.