A Paris appeal court on Thursday upheld a fraud conviction and a fine of hundreds of thousands of euros against the Church of Scientology for fleecing vulnerable followers.

"/> A Paris appeal court on Thursday upheld a fraud conviction and a fine of hundreds of thousands of euros against the Church of Scientology for fleecing vulnerable followers.

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SCIENTOLOGY

Scientology fraud conviction upheld

A Paris appeal court on Thursday upheld a fraud conviction and a fine of hundreds of thousands of euros against the Church of Scientology for fleecing vulnerable followers.

Published: 3 February 2012 02:19 CET
Scientology fraud conviction upheld
Pictorial Evidence

The 2009 conviction saw Scientology’s Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris, the two branches of its French operations, ordered to pay €600,000 ($790,000) in fines for preying financially on several followers in the 1990s

The original ruling, while stopping short of banning the group from operating in France, dealt a blow to the secretive movement best known for its Hollywood followers such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

Alain Rosenberg, the leader of the movement in France, saw his two-year suspended jail sentence and €30,000 fine upheld. Sabine Jacquart, a former Celebrity Centre president, received the same fine and suspended sentence.

The court either upheld or increased fines — now ranging between €10,000 and €30,000 — against four more Scientologists.

Their convictions were for fraud or for the illegal practice of pharmacy, after plaintiffs said they were given vitamins and concoctions which the group claimed would improve their mental state.

“This is very good news for those who fight against cults and a serious defeat for the the Church of Scientology,” said Olivier Morice, lawyer for Unadfi, a group that campaigns against sects and was a plaintiff in the case.

France regards Scientology as a cult, not a religion, and has prosecuted individual Scientologists before, but the 2009 trial marked the first time the organisation as a whole had been convicted.

Scientology’s Paris Celebrity Centre said it would contest the latest ruling in France’s highest appeals court, the Court of Cassation.

It denounced the judgement as “totally false and inequitable” and was “the result of a ghost trial which saw numerous irregularities and violations of the fundamental rights of the Scientologists.”

About 250 Scientologists protested against the ruling outside the Paris courthouse, holding placards reading “I have the right to my religion” and chanting “No discrimination against Scientologists” as they beat on drums.

Church of Scientology lawyers in November raised five constitutional questions in a bid to get the trial annulled, but they were rejected, prompting the defendants and their lawyers to walk out.

Court hearings in the latest trial were curtailed because of the absence of the accused, while the four former followers who brought the case also withdrew from the trial.

The sole remaining witness was Catherine Picard, who heads Unadfi.

Picard testified to the “heavy debts, broken family ties” and the “state of subjection” that could result from the “sect-like methods” used by Scientology to “indoctrinate vulnerable people”.

The original case followed a complaint by two women, one of whom said she was manipulated into handing over €20,000 in 1998 for Scientology products including an “electrometer” to measure mental energy.

A second claimed she was forced by her Scientologist employer to undergo testing and enrol in courses, also in 1998. When she refused she was fired.

Founded in 1954 by US science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology is recognised as a religion in the United States. It claims a worldwide membership of 12 million including 45,000 followers in France.

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RELIGION

Scientologists are ‘rearming’ in Copenhagen: researcher

Scientologists have opened a new, major church in Copenhagen, and its location in the Danish capital is no coincidence according to an expert researcher.

Published: 5 June 2017 12:05 CEST
Scientologists are 'rearming' in Copenhagen: researcher
File photo: franky242/Depositphotos
The new church, strategically placed in Copenhagen's iconic Nytorv square, opened last weekend, reports Politiken.
 
 
According to the organisation itself, more than 2500 people attended the opening day celebrations. The Church of Scientology stated its new building in Denmark was “the next step in the growth of the church.”
 
Peter Birkelund Andersen, an associate professor of cross-cultural and regional studies at the University of Copenhagen, who has studied Scientology for many years, calls the move a “rearmament.”
 
“They went for a central location. And it's a deliberate move to open the church a stone's throw from (the pedestrian street) Strøget, with lots of passers-by which the Scientologists want to get in touch with,” Birkelund Andersen told Politiken.
 
“This is a sign that they are rearming for something they believe could become a new expansion,” he said.
 
 
Copenhagen is also the home to the Church of Scientology's European headquarters, with members from all over the world visiting the course centre on Jernbanegade. 
 
Apart from the new Nytorv church, there is one more church in Copenhagen, and one in Aarhus. But the new church stands out from the others, according to Birkelund Andersen, in that it invites passers-by to come inside from the street.
 
“I believe that to be a strategic choice, which gives you a good picture of what Scientology wants: to get more people inside and show that they have beautiful and newly-refurbished premises, compared to the yellow exhibition tents with folding tables at Strøget, for instance, where they have invited people until now,” he said.
 
 
According to Anette Refstrup, head communications at the Church of Scientology in Denmark, the organisation employs around 1000 people in the country, 170 of whom work at the new church in Nytorv.
 
She also stated that the Church, which is not recognised as a religious community in Denmark, sends out members' magazines to around 25,000 people in the country. But not all of these are active members.
 
“I would estimate that around 4000-5000 have been active lately,” Refstrup told Politiken.
 
But Birkelund Andersen thinks the figures are exaggerated, estimating Denmark has a total of 2000-4000 Scientologists.
 

“The Church of Scientology itself would say that they have a large and steady membership growth here in Denmark. They stress that there's a constant expansion. But I find that hard to see, even though it is true that there's recruitment happening all the time,” he told Politiken.