Title: Scientology looses its
case in Greek Court of Appeal
Author: Tony Bosnakoudis <antbos@eexi.gr>
Date: Mon, 05 Jan 1998 11:51:23 +0200
Greek Justice gave the final decisive blow to Scientology with the verdict of the Court of Appeals, ordering KEFE (Scientology's Mission in Greece) to a permanent shut down and liquidation, while at the same time condemning Hubbard's theories. According to the Sunday, January 4, 1998 edition of APOGEVMATINI newspaper, the Court of Appeals with its 10493/1997 verdict describes KEFE as an organization with totalitarian structures and trends, which despises man, aims at power and money, teaches the survival of the powerful and ruthless, applies dangerous methods without preventing the possibility of suicide of its members, brainwashing them and corroding its opponents' reputation. It says that Hubbard's theories aim at money and power. So it creates a serious obstacle for Scientology to operate in any disguise, since the condemnation can be regarded as not being isolated only to KEFE, but to any group promoting these theories. It mentions that the Dead Agenting policy is activated against anyone reacting negatively against Scientology, these people are called "enemies" and considered to be in a "state of treason". This "lifts any concept of individual freedom". It also calls high-handed and illegal the auditing, purification, postulate etc methods because no safety measures are taken, because they pose dangers to the health of the persons receiving them and are conducted by non-scientifically skilled persons but by ones that only know Hubbard's theories, while the person is questioned about his personal life. The verdict also mentions that "It was fully proven that the participation in KEFE brings a personality change to the member, in his behavior towards others and especially to his family relations, which sometimes are completely broken because of their negative attitude towards Scientology. ... It was fully proven that KEFE is an organization with totalitarian structures and trends, which essentially despises man, acts freely "in phenomenon" in order to attract members, who are then subjected (with all the above mentioned processes and theories) into a brain wash, aiming at the creation of directable way of thinking and minimizing objections (basic positions of the Scientology founder's theories), so that we are standing in front of beings with no personal will, who have lost the capacity of making decisions as products of their free will, since they have passed through the propaganda filters of Scientology and the suitable processing, become susceptible to the "truths" it applies, without having motives to examine and evaluate". The Court of Appeal said that KEFE is not a religion - something it uses in order to have privileges - but only an economic enterprise, in violation of its Statutes.