IN PARIS last month, a court fined the French branch of the Church of Scientology €600,000 after finding it guilty of fraud, but stopped short of banning the group from operating in the country.
Scientology’s Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris, the two branches of its French operations, were fined €600,000 for preying financially on several followers in the 1990s.
The court also handed down suspended prison sentences ranging from 10 months to two years and fines of €5,000 to €30,000 to four leaders of the group in France.
France regards Scientology as a cult, not a religion, and had prosecuted individual Scientologists before, but this case marked the first time the organisation as a whole was convicted.
There had been expectations the court might ban the group, but legislation passed just before the trial in May ruled that out.
The law has since been changed back to allow the dissolution of an organisation found guilty of fraud. However, because of the timing of the case, there was no question of forcing the Church of Scientology to wind up.
The case was brought by two former members who said they were cajoled into spending €21,000 and €49,500 on personality tests, vitamin cures, sauna sessions and “purification packs”.
The movement denied fraud and said it was the victim of a politically motivated “witch-hunt”.