French appeals court upheld the Church of Scientology’s 2009 fraud conviction

[freethinker]

I hope the European Court of Human Rights puts them in their proper cult place.

[Free to shine]

ABC Australia

[Infinite]

..




. . . the more things change, the, well, you know.

[namaste]

IOW, OSA FAILS AGAIN!!

wtg OSA

[Kutta]

Wonnerful! Does this mean there are no further avenues of appeal available to the cult?

[Free to shine]

http://ocmb.xenu.net/ocmb/viewtopic....=unread#unread

A reminder of the original convictions, fines and sentences.......
*Note 4b and 5b. Sabine Jacquart and Aline Fabre came off worse after the appeal.

Summary:
1. GUILTY Alain Rosenberg. 2 years prison (suspended) 30,000E fine *+
2. GUILTY Didier Michaux 18months Prison (suspended) 20,000E fine *
3. GUILTY Jean-François Valli 18months Prison (suspended) 10,000E fine *
4. GUILTY Sabine Jacquart 10months Prison (suspended) 5,000E fine *+
* increased on appeal 4b. GUILTY Sabine Jacquart 2 years prison (suspended) 30,000E fine *+
5. GUILTY Aline Fabre 2,000E fine ~
* increased on appeal 5b. GUILTY Aline Fabre 10,000E fine ~
6. GUILTY Marie Anne Pasturel 1,000E fine ~
7. GUILTY Celebrity Centre 400,000E fine * Ordered to publish details of judgment.
8. GUILTY Scientology Bookstore 200,000E fine * Ordered to publish details of judgment.
* = organized fraud
+ = complicity in the illegal exercise of pharmacy
~ = illegal exercise of pharmacy
Note: (7) & (8 ) are ordered to pay for the details of the conviction to be published in the major French and English-language news outlets including Le Monde, Le Figaro, Libération, the Herald Tribune and Time Magazine – and their websites.
Other individual orders and penalties such as for damages and costs awarded to the plaintiffs add further 27,450 Euros to the total.

articles: http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopS...ud_714800.html
Wikinews:
Scientology guilty of fraud rules French appeal court
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Scientology ... _id=356056
(could do with some expansion on the detail)

UK Independent/AP (brief)
Church of Scientology loses appeal against French fraud conviction
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 48727.html

Court upholds Scientology fraud ruling in France
The Irish Times - Friday, February 3, 2012
RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC in Paris
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/wor ... 75786.html

Church of Scientology loses appeal against French fraud conviction
Belfast Telegraph/AP 3rd Feb 2012
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/ ... 12928.html

[Free to shine]

Wonnerful! Does this mean there are no further avenues of appeal available to the cult?

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...googlenews_wsj

The Paris appeals court also ordered the French branch of the Church of Scientology to publish the ruling in five of the country's largest daily newspapers, and gave four of its leaders suspended jail sentences of up to two years, a spokeswoman for the court said.

A lawyer for the Scientology church, Alexis Gulbin, said the U.S.-based organization would challenge the appeals-court ruling before a higher court, the Cour de Cassation.

[HelluvaHoax!]

...



A French court has slapped a fraud sentence on the Church of Scientology, saying it targets vulnerable people for commercial gain.

The ruling is a major setback for Scientologists in France, and it marks the first time here that the Church of Scientology has been convicted of organised fraud......(full story at link)

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/841...tology-a-fraud


Predictably, Scientologists tried to handle it by lying, lying, lying.

Here's one of those hilariously entertaining lies....

The court found that Scientology offers "free personality tests which delivered negative results to disturb people and convince them of the need to seek cures."

Recruits are then given "new tests, which again delivered negative results," in order to get recruits to buy more courses, stated the ruling.

The Church of Scientology has branded these accusations as "absolutely ridiculous."

[Mark A. Baker]

Wonnerful! Does this mean there are no further avenues of appeal available to the cult?

Technically no, as this ruling did not occur at the highest level of french court, their equivalent of the u.s. supreme court. There are higher courts in france. Still, getting a higher court to accept an appeal typically requires their agreement to hear the matter and in common law countries (u.s., u.k., etc.) is only based on the identification of some actual legal failing; either in the case, by the magistrate, or by one of the advocates. Generally speaking one of the party's personal dissatisfaction with a ruling is not a sufficient basis for hearing of an appeal at a higher level. The court has to agree that there exists a legal issue about the case which still needs to be addressed. Most likely the french have some similar way of deciding which cases go on to an higher level of appeal. So the church aren't likely to have an easy time trying to appeal further.


Mark A. Baker

[Free to shine]

This is covered in the long thread : http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthrea...733#post655733