PARIS (AP) — A Paris court convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud and fined it more than euro600,000 ($900,000) on Tuesday, but stopped short of banning the group's activities. The group's French branch said it would appeal the verdict. The court convicted the Church of Scientology's French office, its library and six of its leaders of organized fraud. Investigators said the group pressured members into paying large sums of money for questionable financial gain and used "commercial harassment" against recruits. ...

A French court has convicted the Church of Scientology of fraud, but stopped short of banning the group from operating in France. Two branches of the group's operations and several of its leaders in France have been fined. The case came after complaints from two women, one of whom said she was manipulated into paying more than 20,000 euros (£18,100) in the 1990s. A Scientology spokesman told the BBC the verdict was "all bark and no bite". France regards Scientology as ...

Two flagship branches of the Church of Scientology in France have been sentenced to pay fines of over €600,000 (£550,000) after being convicted of "fraud in an organised gang" today by a court in Paris. The judgment against the Scientology Celebrity Centre and a related bookshop in Paris is one of the most important to involve the controversial organisation in recent years. The judges stopped short of the total ban the prosecution had called for, so the church will be allowed ...

PARIS (Reuters) - A new French law means the Church of Scientology cannot be dissolved in France even if it is convicted of fraud, it has emerged during a trial of the organisation. A prosecutor has recommended that a Paris court dissolve the church's French branch, which has been charged with fraud after complaints by former members who say they gave huge sums to the church for spiritual classes and "purification packs." The Church of Scientology's French arm denies fraud. Whatever ...

La Mission interministérielle de lutte contre les dérives sectaires (Miviludes) a affirmé, lundi 14 septembre, qu'une modification de la loi, intervenue le 12 mai, ne permet plus à un magistrat de dissoudre une secte pour escroquerie, ce qui lèverait le risque de dissolution de la Scientologie, poursuivie pour de tels faits à Paris. Dans un communiqué diffusé à l'AFP, la Miviludes écrit avoir "découvert avec consternation la suppression de la peine de dissolution d'une personne morale en matière d'escroquerie, votée le ...

It claims to be one of the world's fastest-growing new religions but a battery of legal cases threaten its very existence in this secular country In a small Normandy village, surrounded by wheat fields, Gwen Le Berre keeps a Scientology "electrometer" machine in his bedroom. He opens the large green briefcase and peers at the machine inside. It looks like a lie-detector from an old TV cop show and Le Berre doesn't really understand how it works — he just knows ...

Day 4 (June 2): The court trying six Scientologists and two Scientology associations heard from one of the defendants responsible for managing the Paris centre’s Purification Rundown. [...]

Day 4 (June 2): Alain Rosenberg, "managing director" of Scientology’s Paris Celebrity Centre, presented a vigorous defence — to the point where he had to be called to order by his own lawyer. [...]

(Reuters) — A French prosecutor on Monday recommended a Paris court should dissolve the Church of Scientology's French branch when it rules on charges of fraud against the organization. Registered as a religion in the United States, with celebrity members such as actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, Scientology enjoys no such legal protection in France, where it has faced repeated accusations of being a money-making cult. The Church's Paris headquarters and bookshop are defendants in a fraud trial that began ...

Day 4 (June 2): an expert witness dismissed Scientology’s Purification Rundown as quackery as the Paris trial considered the high doses of vitamins used in the programme. [...]

The Church of Scientology is on trial in Paris for organised fraud. Six individuals and two organisations have been charged and if they are found guilty the Church may well have to wind up some or all of its activities in France. This trial had been talked about for months here as being a make-or-break affair for Scientology and it began last Monday. The two organisations being tried are the Spiritual Association of the Church of Scientology and the Scientology library, ...

Day 3 (May 27): a Paris court heard how a company director's massive spending on Scientology put his business at risk. [...]

(Day 3: May 27) Scientology’s techniques abuse the transference process familiar to all therapists, a psychiatrist told the Paris trial of the movement and six of its members. [...]

Day 3 (May 27): the second plaintiff in the Paris trial of Scientology told the court how her employer put her under ever-increasing pressure to take the movement’s courses. [...]

As a fiercely secular nation, France has always had an awkward relationship with religious groups. Officials often find themselves struggling to strike the delicate balance between maintaining church-state separation and honoring the right of citizens to express their faith. But in the current case against the U.S.-based Church of Scientology, authorities have abandoned their usual attempts at fine-tuning religion's standing in French society — instead, they want to ban Scientology from France altogether. In a long-awaited trial that opened this week, ...

The Church of Scientology and six of its French leaders went on trial on Monday on charges of organised fraud that could lead to an outright ban on the organisation in France.

The Church of Scientology has been accused of manipulating followers into handing over their savings, in a trial that could see the church banned from France. The church's main centre in France, the ASES-Celebrity Centre, its bookshop and six of its leaders were charged on Monday with organised fraud and illegally prescribing drugs. One former church member claimed she had been psychologically pressured into paying thousands of pounds for lessons, books, drugs and a device called an "electrometre", which the church ...

Movement accused of 'organised fraud' against two female members persuaded to part with €20,000 The Scientology movement went on trial in Paris yesterday for "organised fraud" in a case which could lead to the cult's organising bodies being outlawed in France. The French state prosecution service has failed to back the trial but denies that its decision was influenced by the lobbying of French politicians, including Nicolas Sarkozy before he became President, by leading Scientologists, including the actor Tom Cruise. After ...

Members of the Church of Scientology go on trial in Paris Monday on charges of fraud, along with the Church of Scientology itself, which means its operations in France are at risk. The trial is the culmination of two complaints lodged by people who said they were manipulated into spending thousands of euros by the Church. France considers Scientology a cult. Until now, prosecutors have only gone after individual Scientologists in court. But Monday, along with seven Scientologists, the Church itself ...

The Church of Scientology has gone on trial in the French capital, Paris, accused of organised fraud. The case centres on a complaint by a woman who says she was pressured into paying large sums of money after being offered a free personality test. The church, which is fighting the charges, denies that any mental manipulation took place. France regards Scientology as a sect, not a religion, and the organisation could be banned if it loses the case. It is the ...

Are the secrets of Scientology about to be exposed in a French court? More4 News goes to Paris to find out. It sounds like a science, but calls itself a church, while opponents have other names for it. Despite celebrity followers such as John Travolta, the Church of Scientology is viewed with suspicion in some countries. Now the organisation faces a legal battle in France, with a trial starting next week threatening its operations there.