Prosecutors demand end of Scientology

THE Church of Scientology in France should be dissolved due to alleged fraudulent activities, the Paris public prosecution service has demanded.

The demand has been made as part of a court hearing in which the organisation is accused of swindling people out of their money in an organised gang.

The prosecution is also demanding fines of €4 million against the two main legal entities of French Scientology – the Association Spirituelle de l'Eglise de Scientologie-Celebrity Center and the Librairie SEL (Scientologie Espace Liberté) - and suspended jail sentences from two to four years and fines from €10,000 to €150,000 have been requested against four of its leaders.

The man facing the heaviest demands for punishment is Alain Rosenberg, 60, the leader of French Scientology.

Public prosecutor Maud Coujard set aside the issue of whether or not Scientology was a valid religion, saying: “Pretend religion or real one, this is not the place to debate that. Neither the fact of being a religion nor religious motives would be a legal justification.”

The prosecution claim that the organisation uses a series of fraudulent methods to gain money from adherents – starting with the personality tests used in recruitment through the use of “e-meters” in “auditing” people (a kind of counselling claimed to release people from negative effects of past experiences in a process of “clearing” shown by the meter readings) to “commercial harassment” and a “cohort of training programs.”

All this adds up to a “maniacal and paranoid” marketing system, say prosecutors, adding adherents are expected to sign forms which constitute a “Faustian pact” renouncing the right to make complaints.

The Scientologists say money paid is just gifts from believers to the church. They deny the accusations and say their freedom to practice their religion is under attack.

The trial continues, with a judgment not expected until the autumn. Should the prosecution win, the Scientologists are certain to appeal and any final dissolution would probably be years away.