Scientology convicted of fraud in France

28 Oct 2009, 12:00 am   -   Source: AAP
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A French court has convicted the Church of Scientology and one of its leaders of fraud, but stopped short of banning the group's activities in France.

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A French court convicted the Church of Scientology and one of its leaders of defrauding vulnerable members on Tuesday, but stopped short of banning the group's activities in France.

The Celebrity Centre and a bookshop - the two branches of Scientology's French operations - were ordered to pay a E600,000 ($A974,026) fine for preying financially on its followers in the 1990s.

Scientology's leader in France Alain Rosenberg was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence and fined E30,000 ($A48,701) on the same charge.

A lawyer for Scientology's French operations said he would appeal.

The Paris case was launched after a complaint from two women, one of whom says she was manipulated into handing over E20,000 ($A32,467) for costly products, including an "electrometer" to measure mental energy.

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

Prosecutors originally asked the court to order the Celebrity Centre and bookshop to be dismantled in addition to a hefty fine.

But last month the French courts were alerted to a little-noticed legal change voted in by parliament in May - the month the trial opened - which bars French courts from dissolving an organisation convicted of fraud.

Although the change has since been dropped, this was not retrospective and thus Scientology was protected from an outright ban in the ongoing case, forcing the court to downgrade the sentence.

"A ban on its activities would have risked taking us outside the framework of the law," said judge Sophie-Helene Chateau.

Founded in the United States in 1954 by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology is officially recognised as a religion by US authorities and claims a worldwide membership of 12 million.

In 1995 it was officially classified as a cult in France, where it claims 45,000 followers.

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Your Comments

next please

discovery1 - from queensland, 3 years ago

It is a shame that all of these people are sucked in by this rubbish. There will always be a proportion of the population that gets caught up with them. I guess most of us have been conned by a good used car salesman at some stage. There were plenty before Scientology, and there will be plenty in the future.

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