FRANCE’S top appeals court has upheld a fraud conviction and fines totalling hundreds of thousands of euros against the Church of Scientology, for taking advantage of vulnerable followers.
The Cour de Cassation rejected the organisation’s request that a 2009 conviction for “organised fraud” be overturned on the grounds it violated religious freedoms.
The conviction saw Scientology’s Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris, the two branches of its French operations, ordered to pay 600,000 euros ($812,000) in fines for preying financially on followers in the 1990s.
The original ruling, while stopping short of banning the group from operating in France, dealt a blow to the secretive movement best known for its Hollywood followers, such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.
France regards Scientology as a cult, not a religion, and had prosecuted individual Scientologists before, but the 2009 trial marked the first time the organisation as a whole had been convicted.
The head of a parliamentary group on religious cults in France, lawmaker Georges Fenech, hailed the ruling.
“Far from being a violation of freedom of religion, as this American organisation contends, this decision lifts the veil on the illegal and highly detrimental practices” of the group, said Fenech.
Bryan Patterson's Faithworks 
Glad someone is finally exposing the phony that they are, Scientology was never a legit religion in my opinion. Other countries should follow France’s example.
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I’m glad. They are just out for peoples money.
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Unlike the Catholic Church?
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I wouldn’t know, really, to be honest. It was a kneejerk remark based on what I’ve read in the papers not from personal opinion.
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No MAG,
I would never accuse the Catholic Church of ripping its followers off. If anything I would think that the Pentecostals have more to answer for in this regard. Just to attend a faith conference these days is big bucks, money that many cannot afford. Pity Jesus isn’t around with His whip!
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One must be curious where the extreme wealth of the Catholic Church comes from and why it isn’t used to help the adherents?
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Isn’t that —-> ““Far from being a violation of freedom of religion, as this American organisation contends, this decision lifts the veil on the illegal and highly detrimental practices” ”
……exactly what The Jerusalem Daily News was saying about that rip-off merchant from Nazareth, who was luring gullible dills away from The REAL Religion a coupla thousand years ago??
It’s a bit like the israelis justifying persecution because they were persecuted.
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