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Martine Boublil

Former French scientologist, victim of kidnapping by scientologists.
Related topics: Introspection Rundown, False imprisonment.


Le Figaro (March 3, 2008): "Une ancienne adepte française séquestrée en Italie" (French; unofficial English translation coming soon)

Martine Boublil a été enfermée pendant des semaines avant d'être délivrée par les policiers italiens.

De notre correspondant à Rome

QUAND les policiers sardes pénètrent, ce 21 janvier, dans une villa située dans les monts d'Ortobene, près de Nuoro (centre de Ia Sardaigne), ils ont un haut-le-corps.

Ils découvrent au premier étage une femme séquestrée dans des conditions d'hygiène extrêmement précaires. À demi-nue, portant un tee-shirt crasseux pour tout vêtement, elIe est allongée sur un matelas infesté de vermine. La pièce est jonchée d'immondices. Une bassine est remplie d'excréments. Les policiers sont intervenus à Ia demande de voisins alertés par des bouts de carton appelant à l'aide. Écrits au rouge a lèvres, ils ont été lancés de Ia fenêtre par la victime. Le vent les a emportés au pied d'une statue du Rédempteur, toute proche. [...]

Agence France-Presse (March 1, 2008): "Scientology: a Frenchwoman kidnapped in Sardinia will soon be repatriated" (unofficial translation from French)
[...] The police officers had discovered on 21st January Martine Boublil, sister of Claude Boublil, an important member of the church of Scientology in France, locked up in a room filled with rubbish. Initially identified as being of Tunisian origin, she had been found half-naked and sleeping on an mattress infested with vermin, according to the local police force.

Four French people, a woman and three men, identified as members of the Church of Scientology and suspected of having detained Martine Boublil against her will, had been arrested  then, a spokesman of the prefecture of local police force indicated at the time. [...]

Agence France-Presse (March 1, 2008): "Fenech (UMP) for a board of inquiry into the Scientology" (unofficial translation from French)

George Fenech (UMP), vice-president of the parliamentary group on cults, proposed on Saturday the creation of a parliamentary board of inquiry into Scientology after a Frenchwoman was held prisoner by members of the cult in Sardinia.

"This recent affair casts suspicion once more on the Church of Scientology with a French victim, Martine Boublil, claiming serious infringements of her freedom and her physical integrity, and indicates the real dangers of this organization", the deputy said in an official statement.

M. Fenech "will present in the French National Assembly a motion for a resolution creating a parliamentary board of inquiry to determine the real nature of the activities of this movement, its methods of operation, its sources of financing and in a more general way if the organization respects the laws of the French Republic", the text adds.

Martine Boublil, held by force in Sardinia by members of the Church of Scientology and released at the end of January by the Italian police force, "will soon be repatriated to France", French diplomatic sources in Rome indicated on Saturday.

The Tocqueville Connection (March 1, 2008): "Ex-scientologist to return home to France after kidnapping ordeal"

A French former Scientologist who was rescued in January after several weeks of captivity in Sardinia will return home next week, a police spokesman said Saturday.

Martine Boublil, who was found half naked on a mattress infested with insects and worms in a room full of rubbish on January 21, is still recovering in hospital from the ordeal but will return to France "sometime next week," the spokesman told AFP from the northern Sardinian town of Nuoro.

A French diplomat in Rome confirmed that the 48-year-old, whose brother Claude Boublil is a leading Scientologist in France, would go home "soon."

"The French consulate has followed this matter closely since the beginning in close collaboration with the Italian authorities, and Martine Boublil will soon be repatriated to France," the diplomat said.

Nuoro police were alerted to the kidnapping by a caller who reported hearing cries for help from a farmhouse outside Nuoro where Boublil was held.

Four French citizens, a woman and three men, who were arrested in connection with the alleged kidnapping and identified as Scientologists were released 10 days ago and have since returned to France, the Nuoro police spokesman said.

Javno (January 21, 2008): "French Scientologists Arrested in Italy"

Three French members of the Church of Scientology, suspected of holding a fourth person against their will, were arrested Monday in Nuoro, Sardinia, a local police spokesman told AFP. "The three people belong to the Church of Scientology, whereas the person being held was probably not a member," Fabrizio Mustaro, of the Nuoro Prefecture on the Mediterranean island, told AFP.

Police were alerted by a phone call that reported cries for help coming from a house on Mount Ortobene, near Nuoro, said Mustaro. Officers found a 47-year-old woman of Tunisian origin sleeping semi-naked on a mattress infested with vermin. She was subsequently hospitalised. Three other people at the house, a 42-year-old woman and two 18-year-old men, one of Tunisian origin, were arrested and charged with kidnapping.

The three suspects had been living in the Nuoro region for about year, said Mustaro. They had so far refused to speak to officers, he added. All three were due to appear in court late Monday or early Tuesday.