Source: The Houston Chronicle
Wire Service: AP
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6440435.html
The Church of Scientology could be dissolved in France if it is convicted in a trial that opened Monday in a Paris court, where the group and seven of its French leaders stand charged of organized fraud and illegal pharmaceutical activity.
The group, considered a sect in France, has faced prosecution and difficulties in registering its activities in many countries.
The trial comes more than a decade after one of the three plaintiffs originally filed a complaint against the Church of Scientology. A young woman said she took out loans and spent the equivalent of euro21,000 ($29,400) on books, courses and "purification packages" after being recruited by the group in 1998. When she sought reimbursement and to leave the group, its leadership refused.
"For each person who complains we have 100,000 ready to say nothing but good things about scientology," Agnes Bron, an official of the French organization, said before the trial, which is expected to last until June 17.
Investigating judge Jean-Christophe Hullin spent years examining the group's activities, and in his indictment criticized practices he said were aimed at extracting large sums of money from members and plunging them into a "state of subjection."