October 27, 2009
Scientology: Religious sect, or money-making cult?
by Susan Sachs
The Globe and Mail
The German domestic intelligence service keeps the Church of Scientology under surveillance as a potential threat to democracy. Belgian prosecutors have been building a blackmail case against it for 11 years.
Now the French have taken a more forceful step.
In a decision that could reverberate across Europe, a court in Paris Tuesday convicted the French branch of the church of "organized fraud" and said it had systematically tricked recruits out of their savings.
The two flagship Scientology outposts in Paris, a bookstore and an information centre, were ordered to pay €600,000 in fines. The head of the church in France was given a two-year suspended sentence for fraud and fined €30,000.
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