From: jensting@imaginet.fr (Jens Tingleff) Subject: LYON TRIAL French press report 1/10 [Xenu] Date: 1996/10/01 Message-ID: organization: ARSCC Operation Clean the Planet newsgroups: alt.religion.scientology [Summary/piecemeal translation of article of the day in connection with the trial in Lyon of 23 clams. From Liberation, liberal/leftish French daily French original in single quotes. Comments/unclear points in square brackets. Apologies for my French, gotta get a dictionary one of these days...] La Scientologie se defend au tribunal 'Scientology defends itself in court' Bernard Fromentin Liberation 1/10 -96, page 13 Copyright 1996 Liberation [picture from inside Lyon org. Man reading e-meter, woman staring into space. In the caption, e-meter is written "electrometer" (qoutes included ;-) ) ] ======================================================================= The constant smile of Jean-Jacques Mazier, giving testimony about the suicide of an adherent of the church of scientology marked the first day of the trial in Lyon where 23 scientologists are tried. The 53 years old man is in every way the expected image of a high-ranking official of the sect. In the stand, the former leader of the Lyon org comes across as a softspoken man who frequenctly interrupts his speach with hand/arm movements. "I'm a church man" he says. Like all senior staff of this organsition which was classified in a parlamentary report as a sect, he came to scientology by "reading a book written by Lafayette Ron Hubbard presenting Dianetics." That was in 1984. He "wanted to know more", passed "personality tests" and passed on to supervised auditing sessions. He professes to "having been surprised" by the comments of scientologists who proceeded to "help him discover his various previous lives." These "revelations" permitted him to "be aware of his spiritual lives." He passed successfuly the various suggested courses and was named head of the first scientology mission in Lyon. He worked another two years to attein the state of "clear." He explained to the judge what was meant by this. After his selfportrait, he was less eloquent. To questions about the last hours of Patrice Vic, a new adherent who had committed suicide at a crucial stage of his "progression," he answered evasively. He "doesn't remember having audited this new adherent" and doesn't remember to have adviced Patrice Vic to take a loan to progress to the "purification cure." He concedes to "have presented aspects ['tout l'interets'] of the purification procedure." For the rest, the president of the church of scientology [unclear whether this indicates Mazier - could well be; "president" is a general term indicating he's a chief..] called on Ghislaine Huet, a scientology colleague who "knew Mr Vic". She remembers only that he had refused to enter his course with the pretext that "he had drunk alcohol that day." These two testimonies were contradicted by Nelly Vic, the wife of Patrice. In the stand, she told in the same words she had used six years earlier [refers to comments from yesterday's article which mentions an article in 'Liberation Lyon' from 1990] about the last desperate hours of her husband who had screamed ['lachee'] "don't hold me back, it's the only solution" before defenestrating himself in 1988. These testimonies have confirmed the will of the scientologists to present themselves as men and women with "a mission to accomplish" and not crooks. Earlier, the defense layqers, Olivier Metzner and Yves Leborgne, had attempted to reopen the investigation, trying to demonstrate that "it had been long, but incomplete." The response of Thierry Richard ['procureur adjoint'] was brief but to the point. He denounced in his filing of conclusions "a last attempt to block ['repousser'] the trial." At the end of the day, the court presided over by Patrick Lifscutz had "presented the incident in detail ['joint l'incident au fond']" which will permit the case to enter the core of the matter. ======================================================================= Une "eglise" aux lois mercantile fondee par un PDG-gourou 'A "church" with mercatile laws founded by a director-guru' Francois Devinat Liberation 1/10 -96, page 13 Copyright 1996 Liberation [Profile of co$] ======================================================================= "If you want to make money, found a religion!" These words, preached by the "pope" of scientology, Lafayette Ron Hubbard, have the merrit of honesty. The belief of scientology is that all religious work should be paid. In its way, the history of the "church" of scientology which claims to work "for a world without madness, without crime and without war," is a formidable success story ['success story'] which turned the creation of a science fiction author into a fearsome ['redoutable'] well of cult money. [Bio of LRH, not very flattering ;-) Story of 'Dianetics' and the change into a "church" of scientology in order to hide from the attention of the US medical and tax authorities. This did not keep LRH and his staff from hacing to hide out in international waters on a fleet of ships - thereby also avoiding the interests of Interpol and the FBI. The paranoid and schizoprenic - according to his own son Ron de Wolf - Hubbard died on the 24th of Jan 1986 of a stroke, sitting on a mountain of 100s of millions of dollars.] [Description of the "doctrine" of the co$. Describes only the previous-lives shtick and going "clear" - this journalist needs to know about the Marcabs and the thetans ;-).] [Description of the organisation. Extremely hierachical, lead by a clique which lives in Los Angeles. The Hubbardian empire is ruled by telexes which describe good and bad points as functions of profit. Scientology also has considerable influence in spheres of education, arts, human rights defense, the fight against drugs and in management technology. The organisation also expertly discredits its enemies with campaigns of intimidation and defamation "black PR"] Adherents. They are between six and seven millions in the world, several thousands in France. They are recruited mainly from the middle classes, comfortably off, from which the "church" can count on media recruits of choice: John Travolta, Tom Cruise, Julia Migenes-Johnson [your guess is as good as mine ;-)].... The "clients" fo scientology are seduced by a doctrine, popular these days, which subtlely mixes spiritual techniques and psycotherapy. ======================================================================= Comments: Not much meat on the first day of the trial... The bio of the co$ was clearly written as a "don't try this at home" information piece. Later Jens ------ No PGP signature, no authenticity. Vive La France!! ---------- Scientology[tm] ?? Check it out at http://www.scientology.org *and* http://www.cybercom.net/~rnewman/scientology/home.html Report interesting conclusions to alt.religion.scientology ;-)