> ****************

> Scientology: a Frenchwoman kidnapped in Sardinia will soon be repatriated

> ROME, March 1, 2008 (AFP) - a Frenchwoman, kidnapped in Sardinia by
> members of the Church of Scientology and rescued at the end of January by
> the Italian police force, will "quickly be repatriated to France", French
> diplomatic sources in Rome indicated Saturday.

> "The French Consulate in Rome has been following this since the beginning
> in close cooperation with the Italian authorities and Martine Boublil will
> quickly be repatriated to France", affirmed these sources.

> The police in Nuoro (east-central Sardinia), who had rescued the 48 year
> old Frenchwoman held under deplorable conditions, informed AFP that Mrs.
> Boublil "was still in hospital but that she might leave Sardinia next
> week". The prefecture of Nuoro had been alerted by a telephone call
> concerning appeals for help coming from a country house located on
> Ortobene hill, close to Nuoro.

> The police officers had discovered on 21st January Martine Boublil, sister
> of Claude Boublil, an important member of the church of Scientology in
> France, locked up in a room filled with rubbish. Initially identified as
> being of Tunisian origin, she had been found half-naked and sleeping on an
> mattress infested with vermin, according to the local police force.

> Four French people, a woman and three men, identified as members of the
> Church of Scientology and suspected of having detained Martine Boublil
> against her will, had been arrested  then, a spokesman of the prefecture
> of local police force indicated at the time.

> These four people were released ten days ago and have since returned to
> France, the same source said Saturday.

> The spokesman of the Church of Scientology in France, Daniele Gounord,
> invited by the daily newspaper "Le Parisien" to comment, spoke of a
> "family drama" and indicated that Scientology did not have "anything to
> say" on the question.

> "Le Parisien" also reported the testimony of Martine Boublil, who said she
> had been "in hell".

> She said she had been a Scientology member for eight years before leaving.
> Several years later, she was hospitalized for depression. According to
> her, her brother (Claude Boublil, one of the organizers of the Scientology
> Celebrity center in Paris) made her leave and "took her by force to a
> house in Normandy belonging to a scientologist, then to Sarthe and finally
> to Sardinia".

> In Sardinia, she claims to have been forced to remain locked up in a
> "disgusting room" on the first floor of the house, guarded by two young
> people who did not speak to her, with a basin for sanitation and only a
> tee-shirt for clothing. A woman also lived in the house. She claims to
> have written an S.O.S message with lipstick on cardboard which she threw
> into the garden of neighbours who alerted the police.

> After her release, Martine Boublil was hospitalized in a psychiatric
> establishment in Sardinia.

> ******************************

> Fenech (UMP) for a board of inquiry into the Scientology

>  PARIS, March 1, 2008 (AFP) - George Fenech (UMP), vice-president of the
> parliamentary group on cults, proposed on Saturday the creation of a
> parliamentary board of inquiry into Scientology after a Frenchwoman was
> held prisoner by members of the cult in Sardinia.

> "This recent affair casts suspicion once more on the Church of Scientology
> with a French victim, Martine Boublil, claiming serious infringements of
> her freedom and her physical integrity, and indicates the real dangers of
> this organization", the deputy said in an official statement.

> M. Fenech "will present in the French National Assembly a motion for a
> resolution creating a parliamentary board of inquiry to determine the real
> nature of the activities of this movement, its methods of operation, its
> sources of financing and in a more general way if the organization
> respects the laws of the French Republic", the text adds.

> Martine Boublil, held by force in Sardinia by members of the Church of
> Scientology and released at the end of January by the Italian police
> force, "will soon be repatriated to France", French diplomatic sources in
> Rome indicated on Saturday.

> ***************
> with thanks to Babel Fish!

> --
> Hartley Pattersonhttp://www.newsfrombree.co.ukhttp://news-from-bree.blogspot.com