Subject:      Scientology Church members go on trial in France
From:         nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)
Date:         1996/09/30
Message-Id:   <199609300335.FAA01187@basement.replay.com>
Newsgroups:   alt.religion.scientology

Scientology Church members go on trial in France

RT 29 Sept 1996
 
    LYON, France, Sept 29 (Reuter) - Twenty-three members of the
Church of Scientology are to go on trial in the central city of Lyon
on Monday in a case triggered by a follower's suicide.
     The trial, expected to last seven days, is the culmination of a
five-year investigation by examining magistrate Georges Fenech, who
has openly used the probe to try to lay out for the public the
church's workings inside and outside of France.
     The 23 defendants are accused of crimes ranging from manslaughter
to embezzlement to fraud and complicity, and if convicted could be
sentenced to up to five years in prison and fined as much as five
million francs ($1 million).
     The religion, founded in 1954 by the late American
science-fiction novelist L. Ron Hubbard, claims more than eight
million adherents worldwide, including 4,000 in France.
     Members include Hollywood film stars Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman,
John Travolta, Kirstie Alley and Lisa Marie Presley.
     Followers are recruited largely through personality tests and
then offered expensive books and courses of treatment to resolve
problems diagnosed in the tests.
     Critics including German Family and Youth Affairs Minister
Claudia Nolte accuse it of indoctrinating youth and of masquerading as
a church while being driven largely by economic motives.
     Fenech's investigation found that the church charged a fee of
12,000 francs ($2,330) for a "purification cure," 22,000 francs
($4,270) for an intensive course and 80,000 francs ($15,533) for a
week's course in the Caribbean on its yacht Freewinds.
     The Lyon appeals court, which gave the go-ahead for the trial,
said it saw "a major threat to democratic society" in the church,
which it accused of pressuring followers, potential witnesses and
police to withdraw allegations or refuse to participate in the case.
     "Ron Hubbard's teachings recommend in the event of a long-term
threat to immediately evaluate the situation and instigate a black
propaganda campaign in order to destroy the individual's reputation
and discredit him," the court said.
     Church of Scientology spokesman Marc Bromberg has denied the
court allegations and denounced the trial.
     The investigation began after industrial designer and Scientology
follower Patrice Vic, aged 30, killed himself by jumping out of a
window in Lyon in 1988.
     Earlier in the day, he had gone to see his wife, accompanied by
church official Jean-Jacques Mazier, to ask her for a loan of 30,000
francs ($5,825) to pay for church courses.
     Scientology recently generated controversy in Germany when the
governing Christian Democratic Union attacked the film "Mission:
Impossible" because its star Tom Cruise was sharing his earnings with
the church.
     The church later accused the German government of discriminating
against its members and asked the United Nations to monitor the
situation.