The trial of Scientology, France continues, and here is the latest report on the proceedings from France’s Le Parisien magazine.
According to the report, on Monday the former leader of Scientology in Lyon and a former member of the French National Assembly testified on how the Church operates, how it persuades its adherents to fork over thousands and thousands of euros for treatments and a device that is supposed to help ‘clear’ followers of unwanted influences, emotions or painful traumas.
For Le Parisien, reporter Anne-Cecile Juillet writes in part:
“It was a grueling morning for representatives of the Church of Scientology, on trial for organized group fraud since May 25. Monday morning before the 12th criminal court of Paris, they faced two witnesses called by the plaintiffs. All told, only two witnesses, but two witnesses that both inflicted historic destruction on the movement, which they described bluntly as a ‘cult’: Jean-Pierre Brard, former National Assemblyman from the French Communist Party who represented Seine-Saint-Denis, and above all, Roger Gonnet, director of the Scientology center in Lyon. They didn’t mince words …”
According to Brard, the Church has two goals, ‘Power and money. Money to gain power and power to gain money.’ … Presiding judge, Sophie-Hélène Château, wanted details, especially when Brard claimed that Scientology makes the process of its decision-making and finances opaque: ‘It is like a drainage system,” he illustrated. “We don’t see all the little underground channels, but it functions very well, and the water always arrives safe and sound.’
By Anne-Cécile Juillet
Translated By L. McKenzie Zeiss
June 8, 2009
France – Le Parisien – Original Article (French)
It was a grueling morning for representatives of the Church of Scientology, on trial for organized group fraud since May 25. Monday morning before the 12th criminal court of Paris, they faced two witnesses called by the plaintiffs. All told, only two witnesses, but two witnesses that both inflicted historic destruction on the movement, which they described bluntly as a “cult”: Jean-Pierre Brard, former National Assemblyman from the French Communist Party who represented Seine-Saint-Denis, and above all, Roger Gonnet, director of the Scientology center in Lyon. They didn’t mince words, being accustomed to the judicial proceedings that Scientology and other movements have become accustomed to.BRARD: ‘ONE OF THE MOST DANGEROUS CULTS’
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