France - Scientology trial

French scientologists convicted of fraud

Article published on the 2009-10-27 Latest update 2009-11-06 11:16 TU

(Photo: scientologie.tm.fr)

The French branch of the Church of Scientology and six of its leaders were found guilty of fraud in a Paris court on Tuesday following a case in which a women claimed she was duped into handing over 20,000 euros.

The Celebrity Centre and a bookshop - the two branches of Scientology's French operations - were ordered to pay a 600,000-euro fine for preying financially on its followers in the 1990s. However, the court stopped short of banning the group's activities in France.

Scientology's leader in France Alain Rosenberg was handed a two-year suspended jail sentence and fined 30,000 euros on the same charge.

Three other accused Scientologists were also handed suspended jail sentences with the other two given fines of up to 2,000 euros.

A lawyer for Scientology's French operations, which claims 45,000 followers but is considered a sect in France, said he would appeal.

The Paris case came to court after complaints from two women. One claimed that she was manipulated into giving the Scientologists over 20,000 euros for 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.

The Church denied that any mental manipulation took place.

Prosecutors originally asked the court to order the Celebrity Centre and bookshop to be dismantled in addition to a hefty fine but French courts are barred from dissolving an organisation convicted of fraud.

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

The judgement comes just after Oscar-winning film-maker Paul Haggis left the cult after 32 years.

In his resignation letter to the organisation’s official spokesperson Tommy Davis, Haggis, whose screenplays include wrote Crash and Million Dollar Baby, attacked the organisation's "hate-filled" and "bigoted" opposition to gay marriage.

"The church's refusal to denounce the actions of these bigots, hypocrites and homophobes is cowardly,” wrote Haggis. “I can think of no other word. Silence is consent, Tommy. I refuse to consent."

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.