SCIENTOLOGISTS 'PENETRATED FRENCH STATE'
THE MONEY-HUNGRY practices of the Church of Scientology are expected to be
laid bare at a trial that opened in Marseilles yesterday amid an
atmosphere of near-paranoia over the sect's penetration of the French
state and judicial system.
Seven leaders of the sect in southern France are accused of defrauding
former adepts of up to pounds 15,000 each by selling pseudo-scientific
"purification" courses that left the victims more psychologically
disturbed than when they began.
The trial has become a cause celebre since it was revealed two weeks ago
that five boxes of sealed prosecution documents had mysteriously
disappeared. This was the third time that legal documents in cases against
Scientologists had disappeared in France in three years. Two
investigations concluded that the documents had been shredded by mistake.
However, an inquiry into sects in France said the government should
consider "without delay ... whether certain services of the state have
been invaded by sects".
Lawyers defending the accused Scientologists - five men and two women -
protested yesterday that a fair trial was impossible in the witch-hunt
atmosphere in France. Their plea was dismissed. The seven are accused of
cheating 10 people of sums of pounds 2,400 to pounds 15,000 between 1987
and 1990. The prosecution says the victims were tricked or morally
blackmailed into paying pounds 120 an hour for "dianetic" and "mental
science" courses to purify the mind and remove "undesirable sensations".
The Church of Scientology was founded by the American science-fiction
writer L Ron Hubbard in 1954. It is believed to have eight million
disciples worldwide and 10,000 in France, often high-earning, well
educated people. In 1997, six Scient-ologists were given suspended jail
terms for fraud in Lyons.
Leaders of the sect who were in Marseilles yesterday claimed their church
was under attack from a French state that has abandoned its commitment to
"religious tolerance".
Several politicians have called for Scientology to be outlawed. Le Figaro
reported yesterday that Scientologists and other sects had made efforts to
penetrate the French judicial system. Of the 600 examining magistrates in
Paris, "at least four or five" belonged to "sects considered as
dangerous," the newspaper said.
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Independant
September 21, 1999
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