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

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The Russian ban on the Church of Scientology has been ruled illegal by the European court of human rights.

Two Russian Scientology branches, in Surgut and in Nizhnekamsk, had been refused listing as religious organisations because they had not existed for at least 15 years, as required by Russia's Religions Act.

But the court rejected that argument and the groups were each awarded €5,000 (£4,557) in damages with a further shared €10,000 in costs.

The Church of Scientology has been fined €600,000 (£545,000) after being found guilty of cheating vulnerable members out of their life savings.

In a judgment that set legal precedent by convicting Scientology as an organisation, Paris Criminal Court found that the practices of the organisation involved unlawful approaches to fragile people using scientifically bogus claims to defraud them of thousands of euros.

Alain Rosenberg, the scientologists' leader in France, was also fined €30,000 and given a two-year suspended jail sentence. Five other scientologists were fined between €1,000 and €20,000.

The court stopped short of banning Scientology in France, as prosecutors had demanded. Judge Sophie-Hélène Château said that prohibition could drive the organisation underground, where it would be difficult to control.

In her ruling Judge Château said that the organisation had used fallacious arguments of no scientific value to catch members. Judge Château made the rare decision to order publication of the ruling in the international press. This would ensure that victims can be warned about the methods of Scientology, according to Olivier Morice, the lawyer for the plaintiffs.

At the hearing in May, Maud Morel-Coujard, the French state prosecutor, accused the organisation of employing a marketing system to exploit the paranoia of its victims. She described its electrometer — an instrument that purportedly measures mental energy — as a decoy used only for the stage management which characterises fraud.

Update: Appeal

8th November 2011. See article from religionnewsblog.com

The appeal for the Church of Scientology's conviction on fraud has opened in a Paris court.

Defense lawyers for the church plan to argue during the appeal that the conviction curtails freedom of religion and association.

Olivier Morice, lawyer for Unadfi, an organisation which campaigns against sects, said he wants to the trial to include evidence about the methods and techniques of the Scientology movement, which, he said, are those of organised fraud. For us, Scientology is a business, whose main goal is to elicit money from its followers, he told reporters outside the court.

Update: Appeal Fails

9th February 2012. See article from uk.news.yahoo.com

A Paris appeal court has upheld a fraud conviction and a fine of hundreds of thousands of euros against the Church of Scientology for fleecing vulnerable followers.

The 2009 conviction saw Scientology's Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris, the two branches of its French operations, ordered to pay 600,000 euros ($790,000) in fines for preying financially on several followers in the 1990s.

The original ruling, while stopping short of banning the group from operating in France, dealt a blow to the movement in France.

The Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has voiced concerns over the Church of Scientology after a Senator detailed explosive allegations about the organisation, accusing it of torture, embezzlement and coerced abortions.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon tabled letters to the Australian parliament from several former Scientologists, and alleged the secretive church was an abusive … violent and criminal organisation which is hiding behind religion.

Xenophon was questioning the church's tax-free status as a religion when he made the claims, which have been denied by the organisation.

The letters, which the Senator has passed onto police, contained allegations of a range of crimes, including forced imprisonment, coerced abortions, embezzlement of church funds, physical violence, intimidation and blackmail.

Scientology is not a religious organisation, it is a criminal organisation that hides behind its so-called religious beliefs, Xenophon told the Australian Senate in Canberra.

... The letters received by me which were written by former followers in Australia contains extensive allegations of crimes and abuses that are truly shocking - crimes against them and crimes they say they were coerced into committing.

These victims of Scientology claim it is an abusive, manipulative, violent and criminal organisation, and that criminality is condoned at the highest levels.

A Moscow regional court has upheld a district court decision from last year to recognize Scientology literature as extremist.

The court ruling states that Scientology texts foster the creation of an isolated social group, whose members are taught to precisely carry out commands, many of which are aimed at confronting the outside world.

An expert opinion accepted by the judges also accused Scientology of spreading hate speech towards specific social groups. This may be a reference to Scientology classifying certain individuals whose crime is sometimes no more than doubting the veracity of this religion, as incurably evil Suppressive Persons.

The literature considered by the court is a selection of books and leaflets by science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, who founded scientology in the 1950s.