Belgium To Prosecute Scientology As Criminal Organization; Church Faces Charges Of Extortion, Fraud

Federal public prosecutors in Belgium will institute legal proceedings against the church of Scientology in that country and seek to recognize it as a criminal organization.

The church of Scientology -- which is not recognized as a faith in Belgium -- and several of its top-ranking members face charges including extortion, fraud, illegal practice of medicine and violation of privacy laws, according to Flanders News.

The complaint stems from an investigation of fraudulent labor contracts issued by the church of Scientology in an effort to recruit new volunteers and members. A judge ordered raids on Scientology offices in 2008 that allegedly uncovered a "wealth of evidence" that the organization had spied on and extorted money from its members, according to De Standaard.

An estimated 500 people belong to the church of Scientology in Belgium. The organization's European headquarters are located in Brussels.

Belgium is not the only European country in which Scientology has faced criticism and legal action.

Scientology came under fire in France in 2009 when it was convicted of fraud for "[pressuring] members into paying large sums for questionable remedies," according to the Associated Press. That conviction was upheld in a French appeals court in February 2012.

Germany does not recognize Scientology as a faith, and a 1997 state-level interior ministry report described the organization's agenda and activities as "marked by objectives that are fundamentally and permanently directed at abolishing the free democratic basic order," Time reported in 2007.

However, also according to Time, many Germans find the question of what qualifies as a religion a personal one and skeptics fear that banning the church outright could backfire, making the organization appear a victim of persecution.

As Tablet Magazine notes, signatories of an open letter to then-Chancellor Helmut Kohl attempted that shift in dialogue in 1996, "likening the German government’s treatment of Scientologists to Nazi barbarism."

"In the 1930s, it was the Jews. Today it is the Scientologists," the letter stated.

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• <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8022125/Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-his-outlandish-quotes.html">Referring</a> to U.N. sanctions in June 2010.

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• A former Prime Minister <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8536620.stm">triggered uproar</a> in the European Parliament when he suggested that Martin Schulz, a heckling German MEP who had criticised him, would be perfectly cast as a Nazi concentration camp guard in a forthcoming film.

• Silvio Berlusconi

• In remarks translated by Reuters, one world leader <a href="http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/06/ahmadinejad-calls-911-a-big-fabrication/">claimed</a> that the attacks on the World Trade Center was staged.

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• A president who routinely blames capitalism for many of this world's troubles, pointed elsewhere in the galaxy for his latest critique, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704461304576217060217916894.html">saying</a> on state TV that the economic system may have destroyed life on Mars

• Hugo Chavez

• <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/10/the-crisis-in-a-nutshell-quotes-of-the-week-15.html#ixzz2BlHOZTRn">Reacting</a> to the drawing of a bomb that Benjamin Netanyahu displayed at the United Nations.

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• A world leader <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1534596/The-wisdom-of-Chavez.html">said</a>, referring to Condoleezza Rice.

• Hugo Chavez

• <a href="http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/07/11/netanyahu-military-threats-stop-iran-building-nukes/">Reacting</a> to the idea of participating in an U.N. conference on a nuclear-free Middle East.

• Benjamin Netanyahu

• <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8022125/Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-his-outlandish-quotes.html">Talking</a> about Osama bin Laden in May 2010.

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/7816442/Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-in-quotes.html">Speaking</a> of the Holocaust in September 2009.

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15642201">Declared</a> a former prime minister at the end of a G20 summit in November 2011, as the country was facing the worst of the economic crisis.

• Silvio Berlusconi

• Speaking a day after Argentine President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, the president <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-28/chavez-u-s-may-be-behind-s-america-leaders-cancer.html">implied</a> it’s possible that in years to come a plot will be uncovered that shows the U.S. spread cancer as a political weapon against its critics.

• Hugo Chavez

• Humble <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15642201">declaration </a>of a former prime minister in April 2011.

• Silvio Berlusconi

• Surprise <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/30/venezuela-election-obama-idUSL1E8KU37A20120930">endorsement</a> for Barack Obama as both presidents were facing tight reelection fights.

• Hugo Chavez

• At a EU summit, a former president allegedly <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nicolas-sarkozy-quotes-france-2012-2?op=1#ixzz2BlJk5dfj">whispered</a> about Merkel's preference for cheese to other European leaders.

• Nicolas Sarkozy

• During an interview, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20120926/quotes/">emphasizing</a> the fact that a new world order needs to emerge, away from years of what he called American bullying and domination.

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

• <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/nicolas-sarkozy-quotes-france-2012-2?op=1">Wondering</a> about former president Jacques Chirac's passion for sumo fights.

• Nicolas Sarkozy

• <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/7816442/Mahmoud-Ahmadinejad-in-quotes.html">Referring</a> to homosexuals in September 2007.

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Comments

[Saml Adams]

12:33 AM on 01/08/2013

Now, when Christianity can also be judged as the criminal racketeering outfit that it is, the world will take another step closer to SANITY.

[evolvedtg]

11:37 AM on 05/19/2013

They're so rich from getting money "for the poor and their charitable works" that their attorneys, the richest in the world, will tie up the legal system for a hundred years with legal effery, spurious motions, appeals ~ Never happen ~ not that it SHOULDN'T. It should.

[Kimberly Owsley]

11:44 AM on 05/19/2013

Hey now, lets not single out any religions, lest they think they're being "persecuted". Get rid of them all.

[SP4123105]

12:32 AM on 01/08/2013

Another country stopping the cult from continuing its fraudulent ways. How come this American religion is still going in America? What does everyone else see that we don't? Shut it down!

[evolvedtg]

11:38 AM on 05/19/2013

Freedom of religion = freedom to indoctrinate and fleece the superstitious masses.

[Kennin]

04:21 AM on 01/03/2013

Good start!
And now all the other hypocrite superstitions, like christinsanity, Judaism, Islame and what not, for their part in the oppression of the world and other cruelties!

[evolvedtg]

11:39 AM on 05/19/2013

Amen! (lol.)

[Sebastian Stacey]

09:14 PM on 01/02/2013

It sounds like Belgium might be doing what America should have done years ago. Scientology is a cult, not a religion.

[NYCastoria]

06:49 PM on 01/02/2013

$cientology helps people. Why can't the world see that?!

[evolvedtg]

11:40 AM on 05/19/2013

Helps them out of their wallets and rational thought, yeah, I agree.

[StopMakingSense2]

05:35 PM on 01/02/2013

Of coarse they are a criminal enterprise like the other organized superstitions! End religions tax exempt status and watch a lot of these con games dry up. The government should not promote superstitions of any kind through tax policy or direct transfers!

[evolvedtg]

11:41 AM on 05/19/2013

The $ collected for the "poor" goes to buy politicians... since the inception of "religion."

[GreeseMonkey]

01:44 PM on 01/02/2013

Case in France was a bit different. A high official in office of president of the republic was giving classified state information to church of scientology. Same goes for Greece when during araid on offices police found greek/NATO military classified info and same goes for Russia which after that more or less outlawed scientology.
Rather good documentary (german but with english subtitles):
Arte Magazin OSA THE EYE OF SCIENTOLOGY - OSA DAS AUGE VON SCIENTOLOGY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFcrF3mLwyU

[simpsonadg]

09:48 AM on 01/02/2013

"In the 1930s, it was the Jews. Today it is the Scientologists."

Oh, so Scientologists are being slaughtered by the millions by being gassed, shot, burned, and/or buried alive? No? Then are they being rounded up, sent to giant death camps and used as slave labor and for inhumane science experiments? No? What about having their property stolen, businesses ruined, and being blamed for every bad thing that has ever happened ever, especially to Germany? Again no?

THEN SHUT UP!! YOU KNOW NOTHING OF HOW THE NAZIS TREATED JEWS AND OTHER PEOPLE THEY KILLED DURING THE HOLOCAUST!.

[GreeseMonkey]

02:06 PM on 01/02/2013

Don't flip over the gyu's comments. It is just OSA in action. Nothing more. We'll see lot more of them here.

[lightningbolt]

07:59 AM on 01/02/2013

Freedom of religion can only go so far.  Once an organization starts breaking the law and hurting people, its freedom can be taken away.

[evolvedtg]

11:46 AM on 05/19/2013

Really? I'm still waiting....for instance, the pedophile palace has been committing crimes like this from Day I, and I don't see that THEIR freedom has been taken away. Too many indoctrinated and brainwashed zombies with their heads in the dirt.

[Zerozequal]

04:42 AM on 01/02/2013

Working in the dark is always suspicious. The religion is not about scientific or ideological invention, it's about believing or not.

[GSvictiminCA]

03:11 AM on 01/02/2013

Prison camps.

A good many of the ultra-criminal organization known as $cientology need to be taken to prison camps where they will live out the remainder of their collectively miserable psychopathic gangstalker lives.

[GreeseMonkey]

02:27 PM on 01/02/2013

They have their own concentration camps.

[Fiona Catherine Hawke]

11:06 PM on 01/01/2013

Anyone check to see if Scientology has shares in Kraft Foods...? ;o)

[CareerGem]

10:56 PM on 01/01/2013

Too many negative and disturbing stories are published about Church of Scientology. People have come out and said the leaders are stalkers, they take all your money, they hold you hostage, they are controlling, you can't leave when you want to and folks interests are still being peaked and people from all around the world are still joining??? I don't get it. It must be the endorsements from celebrities that keep this cult going. But these are folks with money that are able to "gift" the church and write it off, these are not everyday people.

[evolvedtg]

11:49 AM on 05/19/2013

Sounds like ANY religion, i.e., EVERY religion. All about controlling the sheep. It's easy, though, because sheep WANT to be controlled and told what to think and do. They need to be part of a single minded flock.

[Dump Email]

10:43 PM on 01/01/2013

in 2113 religion will be non-existant! the thought of living life based on just facts seems like "heaven" :-)

[drkaos]

10:09 AM on 01/02/2013

Let's hope fascists like you will be extinct by then, that will be heaven!!

[GraphicMatt]

10:45 AM on 01/02/2013

What makes Dump email a fascist exactly? It's one thing to disagree with this person, but the petty name calling is sort of uncalled for, don't you think? There are many that would consider religious zealots fascists.

[GreeseMonkey]

02:28 PM on 01/02/2013

OSA in action. Nothing more. We'll see lot more of them here.
Rather good documentary (german but with english subtitles):
Arte Magazin OSA THE EYE OF SCIENTOLOGY - OSA DAS AUGE VON SCIENTOLOGY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFcrF3mLwyU

[evolvedtg]

11:56 AM on 05/19/2013

I've always wished to see at least the beginning of the end of religion in my lifetime. That WOULD be heaven.

[Peter Callan]

09:29 PM on 01/01/2013

It's common knowledge that L.Ron Hubbard started Scientology for the express purpose of getting himself out of a massive tax debt. It's therefore surprising that the IRS, known for its take-no-prisoners attitude to tax cheats, tax avoiders and tax criminals, has not attacked this "church" and others in order to prosecute them for tax evasion and to acquire the unpaid tax revenue. Never mind, I forgot, this ridiculous "church" started in the US, the home of lunatic religious faiths. It's the Europeans that have the sense to not recognise it and its cynically manufactured beliefs.

[evolvedtg]

11:55 AM on 05/19/2013

We're such WIMPS when it comes to tolerating cults in the USA.