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Church of Scientology Wins Appeal in Highest French Court—€35,000 in Costs and Damages Upheld
The Church of Scientology has won another victory before the Court of Cassation—France’s highest court for all criminal and civil matters—in a lawsuit filed against the French government for a prosecutor’s illegal and unsuccessful attempt in 2009 to dissolve one of the Scientology Churches in Paris.
The Paris Court of Appeal ordered the government to pay €35,000 to the Church and four of its members.
When the case came to trial in 2014, the trial court adjudicated that the French government had denied the Church its due process of law and awarded the Church costs and damages.
The State appealed this ruling, but on November 24, 2015, the Paris Court of Appeal found that the State of France was liable for the serious misconduct of the prosecutor, which denied the Church fundamental justice, in addition to the already adjudicated abuse of process finding. Thus, the Court found in favor of the Church of both counts.
The Court of Appeal stated: “The public prosecutor who … is expected to master the law and know its evolutions and modifications so as to correctly enforce it; however, the prosecutor blatantly failed to do so …the Public Prosecutor failed to apply the exact principles of law in accordance with his duty.”
The Paris Court of Appeal ordered the government to pay €35,000 to the Church and four of its members.
The government appealed to the Cassation Court, which rendered its judgment March 22, 2017, confirming all aspects of the ruling by the Paris Court of Appeal and dismissing the State’s appeal. The decision is final.
Freedom of religious belief is guaranteed in France by the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
This is the second decision by the Court of Cassation in favor of the Church of Scientology in 2017 alone. On January 12, the Court upheld the condemnation of the anti-religious group UNADFI (Union of Associations for the Defense of Families and the Individual), agreeing with the Paris Court of Appeal that UNADFI had acted in bad faith and illegally claimed to be a victim in this case. These decisions stand for the proposition that both UNADFI and the prosecution acted in bad faith during the proceedings against the Church, underlying the Church’s claim that it did not receive a fair trial.
Freedom of religious belief is guaranteed in France by the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen.
Scientology has grown steadily in France since the early 1950s. Its Churches now have tens of thousands of members throughout the country, with millions more throughout the world.
The Scientology religion is recognized in the United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Sweden, by German courts, and many other nations. The Church’s humanitarian programs reach many millions of people in the world every year. For more information, visit www.scientologyreligion.org.
