L'Express: "Scientology. Inquires into a fearsome cult" (translation) 14/05/2009
Out_Of_The_Dark
Par François Koch, publié le 13/05/2009 11:34 - mis à jour le
14/05/2009 13:50
L'Express: "Scientology. Inquires into a fearsome cult" (translation)
Posted by Ann O'Nymous @
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Enquête sur la scientologie, une secte qui fait peur [L'Express is the
Nr 1 serious weekly newspaper in France]
Scientology. Inquires into a fearsome cult
By François Koch.
Untouchable, the followers of Ron Hubbard? They are the object of a
lawsuit in Paris for swindle in organized band which threatens their
activity in France. At the same moment, one of their victims publishes
a damning testimony on their practices. Because, justice or not, they
always have frightening methods.
Ten years later, Aude is always afraid of the scientologists. They
badgered her so much. This young person in her 40s with the sweet
chestnut eyes agreed to tell her painful adventure only in the bar of
a remote Parisian suburbs train station. In 1998, then working in a
large hotel of the capital, she fills a personality test distributed
by a follower at the exit of the subway. She does not know that it is
a trap and the result of this questionnaire is invariably negative.
"My companion had just broken, I was alone, depressed, vulnerable. I
agreed to take a course intended to give me confidence again, for only
300 francs."
Vendors with a sweet tongue
In the street of Marseilles, members of the church of scientology
propose free "stress tests" and sell Ron Hubbard’s books. The prey is
crammed, cherished, taken in hand by the vendors with a grounded
glibness, with promises of perfect happiness. "I always ended up
signing a check to get rid of them. I had to empty my home sparing
plan, to contract a loan, to leave my apartment and live in
collocation with another follower. But I never saw anything religious
in scientology." After a twenty days "purification rundown", with
overdosed vitamins and sauna, Aude spent on the whole 140’000 francs
(21’341 euros). Ruined, she realizes thanks to its family, rather
quickly but too late, that she was victim of a cult. Aude is one of
the civil parties of the great lawsuit which will open on May 25th,
for at least eleven days of hearing, in the law courts of Paris. " It
is the first time that scientology is goes into correctional as a
moral person for swindle in organized band” says delightedly the
magistrate and former deputy (UMP) Georges Fenech, president of the
Interdepartmental mission of vigilance and fight against the sectarian
drifts (Miviludes). “It could thus be condemned as such."
"This lawsuit has a vital importance, recognizes Patrick Maisonneuve,
scientology’s lawyer. In the event of a judgment against our customer,
the scientologists will not be able to exert any more in France."
General quarters at the headquarters of scientology! It is the hottest
alarm for this sectarian movement created fifty-five years ago in the
United States by the science fiction author Lafayette Ron Hubbard, the
guru who died in 1986. Not to mentions that scientology must face the
same type of lawsuit for "swindle and criminal organization" this year
in Belgium. The international and immensely rich cult prepares to take
up this difficult challenge.
By a very bad coincidence, a few days before the opening of this
lawsuit, ex-follower Alain Stoffen signs an exceptional testimony over
his fifteen years of martyrdom. His "Travel in the middle of
scientology" (Editions Private), of which L'Express publishes
upsetting extracts, reveals a new performance: the Belgian pianist
managed to get or a few hours his ultra-confidential "ethics file".
Damning documents.
Night of disgust
"When reading them, I vomited part of the night, folded into two with
pain, trembling and covered with sweat", Alain Stoffen explains. Why
such a nausea? He realizes brutally that the organization - in which
he believed so much, and of which he adulated the stars, like the
pianist Chick Corea and the trumpet player Mark Isham, two jazzmen -
never ceased to trap him, handle him without scruple in order to tap
all his money and even beyond. More still nauseating, he discovers
many internal denouncement reports, including those of his own wife -
she is also a scientologist - proving that those in charge of the cult
briskly violated the couple intimacy. Some apprentice gurus even
praised to have caused the separation of the Stoffen couple, by
choosing all the modalities. By getting his ultra-confidential "ethics
file", ex-follower Alain Stoffen understands that the cult in which he
believed trapped him. At the end of this night of disgust, Alain
Stoffen photocopies 120 pages of his sulfurous file.
Nine months later, in 2002, he initiates a lawsuit for "blackmail,
swindle and extortion in organized band, illegal exercise of medicine
and pharmacy", assisted by Olivier Morice, a lawyer expert in cults.
The prosecution is always in hand of Judge Jean-Christophe Hullin.
This judge sent scientology back to the courts for swindle in
organized band. But it is also him who signed the withdrawal in
another famous Parisian case concerning the cult which has been closed
definitively last March, after twenty-six years of procedures - a
record! - and after the mysterious disappearance of a large part of
the file.
Between French justice and scientology, it is a play of cat and mouse
going on for decades. In 1978, the Paris court condemns by contumacy
the guru Ron Hubbard to four years of prison for fraudulent schemes.
But the legal saga really starts between 1988 and 1996, in Lyon.
“There was a before and an after the Lyon lawsuit, Georges Fenech
analyzes, who instructed this case. A turning point. For the first
time, in 1988, a follower, Patrice Vic, commits suicide by jumping
through the window from the twelfth floor, as he is drowning under
debts made for scientology. Eighteen years later, Gloria Lopez is in a
similar situation, as she owes 200’000 euros to the cult. She kills
herself, by jumping under a train at Colombes (near Paris). Her
children initiate a lawsuit."
Tenors to represent the cult
This 1996 manslaughter lawsuit in Lyon constitutes the first great
alarm for scientology in France. Thus, the cult retains three very
senior Paris lawyers: Olivier Metzner, Patrick Maisonneuve and Jean-
Yves Le Borgne. For the appeal, another celebrity: the barristers
president Jean-Rene Farthouat. In 2009, the Scientology calls again M.
Maisonneuve (see below). At 54 and nearly thirty years of practice,
this fine penalist was labelled "lawyer of the Socialist party",
because he pleaded for the socialist figures Pierre Bérégovoy, Edmond
Herve, Henri Emmanuelli and Gilles Ménage.
There is a before and an after Lyon. Conscious of the stake,
scientology puts, at the end of the 80's, a maximum pressure on Judge
Fenech, up to some form of intimidation. "I am followed by a PI", says
the magistrate, who never returned home using the same way. According
to Serge Faubert, the author of A cult at the heart of the Republic
(Calmann-Levy), the PI was a former chief of DST [counter-
intelligence] having worked within the presidential unit before being
paid by Ron Hubbard’s organization. Two years later, similar practices
are observed in another swindle case. "The expert and the plaintiffs
received blackmail threats, and files were made about judges", says
the Marseilles prosecutor, aiming explicitly at "Ron’s followers.
Several admitted to have attempted "to compromise the reputation" of
psychiatrist expert Jean-Marie Abgrall.
There is a before and an after Lyon. This lawsuit was also almost lost
in the basement of the court building. When Fenech’s prosecution case
is finished, scientology proposes, as usual, money to its victims in
exchange of a desistment: of the original 32 plaintiffs, only 10
resist. Two years later, a written injunction of the Minister of
Justice himself, Jacques Toubon, is necessary so that the prosecution
fixes a date for hearing." If we were condemned for swindle, we would
have had a hard time to recover" , says then to L'Express Danièle
Gounord, scientology’s spokesperson. It calls upon four tenors of the
Paris bar. At top price but to no avail. The founder of the Lyon
branch is condemned for swindle, both on the first procedure and in
appeal. Final sentence: three one-year suspended sentences and 500’000
francs. At the same moment, a Marseilles court condemns for swindle
the founder of the Marseilles center to two years of prison including
eighteen month with deferment and 100’000 francs. He does not appeal.
Quote:
20 trapped deputies
On the site of the Citizens commission for human rights (CCHR), it is
easy to note that it was founded in 1969 by scientology, in the United
States, to fight the abuses of psychiatry. Nevertheless, between
August 2008 and March 2009, 20 deputies (of which 10 of the majority)
were trapped by CCDH and put a written question to a minister about
"forced hospitalizations".
"Electrometers, vitamins and auditions"
There was a before and an after Lyon… but scientology did recover very
well. In 1997, the cult dares to shout victory, because an appeal
court writes that "the church of scientology can use the title of
religion". Danièle Gounord, everlasting spokesperson for the Paris
region followers of "Ron" for twenty years, even continues to claim
that "the Lyon appeal court judged that the church of scientology
fills the criteria for a religion". And yet, Georges Fenech precise:
"The unhappy sentence was erased by the Cassation court." A respectful
application of the 1905 law about the separation of churches and
State: "The Republic does not recognize any religion."
There is a before and an after Lyon. But the new legal case show that
the followers of "Ron" haven’t changed anything with their methods.
There is this famous "electrometer", sold to the followers 5’000
euros, even if it is not worth more than 750. "It appears clearly that
the apparatus is nothing but a lure intended to give a scientific
aspect to an operation which is not so" read the 70 pages order signed
by Jean-Christophe Hullin, on September 8, 2008, sending scientology
back to court. This apparatus only measures the electrical resistance
of the body between the two hands, and the needle movements depend
only on the pressure of the fingers on the metal cylinders and their
moisture. There are the vitamins, which, in overdose, plunge the
follower in an "extreme tiredness state", which causes a "progressive
desocialization". As for the famous "auditions", a technique of mental
regression towards the past, nothing new either. Expert psychiatrist
Jean-Marie Abgrall qualified them of "real instrument of domination
able to generate at least emotional disorders and emotional crises, at
worse hallucinatory disorders and deliriums likely to lead to death".
An analysis which applies to Alain Stoffen’s account. It is
undoubtedly why the prosecution wishes him to testify in the lawsuit
which will open soon.
Quote:
Patrick Maisonneuve: "Individual skids"
"Scientology is a customer like another." Lawyer Patrick Maisonneuve
is however well aware that defending a cult is risky for his image.
Assuming its statute of mercenary, he prepares himself, like thirteen
years ago, to play its penalist partition in favour of the followers
of "Ron": "Components of swindle are not gathered in the moral person
case: individual skids would not justify its condemnation. The
discovery of a paedophile priest does not allow to blame all the
Catholic church. I wait until charge shows that scientology is a band
of swindlers who had the intention of being so." Defense might have
forty followers expressing their satisfaction with scientology’s
services "Is this a religion? This debate between scientology and its
adversaries will not be mine." Showing its independence with respect
to its sulfurous customer, Maisonneuve approves the Court of appeal,
which judged in 1999 that a republican jurisdiction does not have to
answer this question.
Tom Cruise, sect-symbol
The French public authorities seem defenseless vis-a-vis this swindle
company, apparently insubmersible and insensitive to legal decisions.
It asserts 12 million followers in the world, as twenty years ago.
Including less than 5’000 in France. Its annual receipts are always
estimated at 1 billion dollar, including 10 million euros in France.
With the election of Nicolas Sarkozy, disciples of "Ron" even opened
bottles of champagne. In 2004 Tom Cruise, their best ambassador, could
meet him in Bercy, he was then Economy and Finances minister. The sect-
symbol ensured that the two men spoke about scientology. And the
latter saw this meeting as a recognition of which it is so fond of.
"France moves in the right direction, our image is not as negative as
in the past", said a delighted Danièle Gounord one year ago. Why?
Sarkozy’s chief of staff, Emmanuelle Mignon, has just questioned
publicly the "public order disorders" and " abuse of weakness" of
which scientology is accused. "A total ignorance of the subject!"
stormed deputy Alain Gest (majority).
Such a scandal that Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Fillon [prime
minister] must act as firemen. Did they want to show that the public
authorities do not slacken their vigilance with respect to the
sectarian drifts when naming, last September, Georges Fenech as the
head of Miviludes? Without awaiting the answer, the Scientology attack
on its pet peeve, qualified as being "hysterical" about the "spiritual
minorities". Except that, for the time being, the State appears
impotent vis-a-vis a cult much more solid than believed by its
adversaries twenty years ago. Because of its extremely grounded
methods of mental handling, new victims are always made swindle. Is it
necessary to intensify the prevention or to decide a pure and simple
prohibition? Whatever the iutcome of the new lawsuit, the public
authorities will have to take their responsabilities if they want that
scientology ceases to prevail in France.
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