---

---

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 23504 • Posted: Tuesday June 16, 2009  

---

French prosecutor seeks dissolution of Scientology

PARIS (Reuters) – A French prosecutor on Monday recommended a Paris court should dissolve the Church of Scientology’s French branch when it rules on charges of fraud against the organization.

Registered as a religion in the United States, with celebrity members such as actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Scientology enjoys no such legal protection in France, where it has faced repeated accusations of being a money-making cult.

The Church’s Paris headquarters and bookshop are defendants in a fraud trial that began on May 25.

Summing up her views on the case, state prosecutor Maud Coujard urged the court to return a guilty verdict and dissolve the organization in France.

The Church of Scientology denies the fraud charges and says the case against it violates freedom of religion.

A ruling is expected within months.
[...]

French prosecutors urge court to shut down Scientologists

Prosecutors Maud Morel-Coujard and Nicolas Baieto called on the court to dismantle the movement’s French structures, the Scientology Celebrity Centre and an associated bookshop in Paris, and fine them each EUR two million (USD 2.75 million).

They also demanded a four-year suspended jail sentence and EUR 150,000 fine against the French centre’s founder, Alain Rosenberg, and asked the court to deprive him of civic and civil rights for five years.

The prosecutors further asked for suspended jail sentences of up to three years and fines of up to EUR 50,000 against five other top French Scientology officials.

“A whole series of fraudulent maneuvers were used in the search for new followers,” Morel-Coujard told the court.
[...]

The defence will plead its case on Tuesday and Wednesday and the court will issue a verdict in several weeks’ time.

Our View

Buyer beware! What you should know about Scientology.

In our opinion, the Church of Scientology hides behind a so-called ‘religion’ made up by its founder, L. Ron Hubbard — a science fiction writer with a marked inability to separate truth and fiction.

We consider the Church of Scientology to be a destructive cult, involved in quackery, fraud, as well as hate- and harassment activities.

If you want to improve your life there are countless safer, cheaper and more effective ways to do so than to get tangled up in a religious cult.

---

What You Can Do From Here

---

Read More Articles On These Topics Categories: Scientology Tags: anti-psychiatry, Church of Scientology, cult, hate group, Quackery, religious cult, Scientology Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article Subscribe Religion News Blog RSS feed [What is this?] RSS by topic: Scientology Read Another Article Previous entry: Parents of Ava Worthington face charges in her faith healing death Next entry: St. Petersburg Times exposes Scientology to daylight RNB Homepage with latest headlines Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults Find Related Books Scientology Most Popular Today Polygamist Sect Leader Convicted of Sexual Assault Jury takes 14 minutes to convict self-proclaimed pot pastor Supreme Court upholds cult AUM Shinrikyo members’ death sentences Prosecutor not malicious in Satanic sex abuse case, Canada’s Supreme Court says Fort Hood shooting: imam says Nalid Malik Husan ‘didn’t seem like an extremist’

---

Share This Article

---

To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:

• Post a link on your blog or website:
  
• Send in an email or IM:
  
• Post on a forum:
  

Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- CounterCultSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.

Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- ApologeticsSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.