The alleged leader of a doomsday cult was charged on Saturday with attempted murder for her role in a suspected mass suicide plot and was ordered held without bail, a court official said.
German psychologist Heide Fittkau-Garthe, in a court appearance in the Canary Islands, was also charged with "inducement to suicide" by her 32 followers, a court spokeswoman told Reuters.Police said they foiled the alleged plot when they arrested Fittkau-Garthe late on Wednesday during what they described as a "last supper" at her chalet on the Spanish resort island of Tenerife.
The judge, after a lengthy hearing, ordered Fittkau-Garthe, 57, to be held in prison without bail while authorities continued their investigation.
Police said they found poisonous chemicals at her home that they believe cult members were going to use to take their own lives.
The sect was convinced a spaceship would rescue their souls from the summit of the Teide volcano and take them to a new world, officials said.
Fittkau-Garthe's attorney, Enrique Porres, told reporters the case had been blown out of proportion and accused the media of whipping up an "international scandal."
A German member of the group, who declined to be identified, told Reuters on Saturday that no ritual suicide had been planned and main-tained they had gathered only for a "dinner among friends" the night of Fittkau-Garthe's arrest.
The sect members, mostly Germans, have refused to cooperate with authorities, and officials believe they were "brainwashed" by their leader.
"She was provisionally jailed without bail on criminal charges of inducement to suicide and attempted murder," a court spokeswoman told Reuters, reading from the judge's order.
Authorities were also taking action in Hamburg, Germany, where a criminal case has been opened against an unnamed German woman.
German police said the alleged cult leader's brother, a 47-year-old businessman from Duesseldorf, had alerted them about the mass suicide plan and they tipped off Spanish police.