Scientology sect loses in court
Complaint against Interior Agency dismissed
Hamburger Abendblatt, April 8, 2000
Defeat for the Scientology sect, victory for the Interior Agency's Work Group on Scientology: on Friday the Administrative Court dismissed the complaint of the sect and of two private persons against the Interior Agency as inadmissible and/or unfounded in the primary hearing. The decision means that the security and technology statement developed by the Work Group and in use all over Germany may continue being distributed. By using the form ("I declare that neither I nor my business works/operates according to the technology of L. Ron Hubbard"), companies can learn, indirectly, whether staff or companies with which they do business belong to Scientology.
The sect and two women who support the organization had sued the Work Group to keep it from distributing the form - in expedited hearings they lost on two counts. They claimed a violation of freedoms of religion and practice of profession: they said the technology statement in private business dealings was counter to Basic Law and that the risk that the people involved would be have professional, financial injury was imminent. "When someone is uncovered, that is his civil end," stated Scientology attorney Wilhelm Bluemel passionately in the hearing. Bluemel also said that the Work Group, which uses "the sect filter to boycott Scientology," was "discriminating" against a minority. The judge dismissed the Scientology Organization's complaint, (they had joined in the complaint after it had already been filed) as inadmissible because expanding the complaint to include the organization was "not relevant."
The complaints by private persons, in contrast, were said to be unfounded. The judges went along with the Interior Agency's argument that the distribution of the statement was not tangibly causative for any kind of financial harm to the complainants, neither did recurring risk exist. Ruediger Hintze, attorney for the Work Group, expressed the legal position: he said it was "the free decision of autonomous corporations" to protect themselves from Scientology's adherents and to keep the Hubbard technology from finding its way into their corporations. Hintze, "It is our duty to observe the justified interests of people who turn to us for help." The battle continues. Helmuth Bloebaum, President of Scientology Germany said, "We will appeal, if necessary, all the way to the European Court."
