C
HURCH OF
S
CIENTOLOGY
I
NTERNATIONAL
_______________________________________________________
6331 Hollywood Boulevard, Suite 1200, Los Angeles, CA 90028 USA
Telephone: (323) 960-3500
? Fax: (323) 960
-3508/9
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 27, 2009
Contact: Karin Pouw
Church of Scientology International
(323) 960-3500
For Australian Church of Scientology contact:
Vicki Dunstan
(03) 9638 5200
CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY DEFEATS ATTEMPT TO CURTAIL FREEDOM
TO PRACTICE THE RELIGION IN FRANCE
The Paris Correctional Court today rejected the recommendations of
prosecutors in a case against a Paris Scientology Church, a Scientology bookstore
and six
individual Church members. The Court cited the absence of any
complainants coming forward despite the intense media surrounding the trial
and that the defendants had acted out of sincere religious conviction as reasons
for refusing the draconian sanctions sought by the government. The Court
imposed no restrictions on the Church’s activities.
Throughout the month-long trial held in May and June 2009, the Church
decried the case as a heresy trial and an example of the discriminatory treatment
to which new religious movements are treated in France—treatment that has
been condemned by international human rights bodies. In its annual
International Religious Freedom Report issued on October 26, 2009 the United
States State Department said that “discriminatory treatment” of Scientologists in
France “remained a concern.”
The case arose out of the five-month participation in Scientology religious
practices in 1998 by the main civil party. This included studying Scientology
Scriptures and receiving spiritual counseling. The donations made by the
plaintiffs were returned to them in full well before any case was heard. In 2006,
the prosecutor recommended the case be dismissed because there was no
evidence of any wrongdoing
and because all donations had been returned.
Instead, the court succumbed to pressure from anti-religious extremists in
government
and turned it
into a heresy trial in violation of the rights of the
Scientologists under French law and under the European Convention on Human
Rights.
This is in marked contrast to the treatment of Scientology in other
countries where Scientology is formally recognized as a religion. The
European
Court of Human Rights has on two recent occasions found that Churches of
Scientology in Russia are entitled to the protection of religious freedom
guaranteed by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Today’s decision means that Scientologists remain free to practice their
religion in France, despite the best efforts to the contrary by anti-religious
extremists. While the fines and suspended sentences issued by the Court will be
appealed, they will have no effect on Church activities and the rapid expansion
the Church is experiencing will continue.
The Church of Scientology has grown from one Church in 1954 to more
than 8,000 Churches, Missions and groups in 165 countries
today. The Church
sponsors an international human rights education initiative as well as the world’s
largest non-governmental drug education program. Four new Churches have
opened in 2009, most recently the Church of Scientology of Rome on October 24,
with a new Church opening in Washington, DC, on October 31. In April, three
new Churches were dedicated: in Malmo, Sweden; Dallas, Texas; and Nashville,
Tennessee. The Scientology religion has expanded more in the past year than in
the past five years combined and more in the past five years than in the past five
decades combined.
oOo
NEWS 
