March 31, 2003

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Linda Simmons Hight
Media Relations Director
Church of Scientology International
6331 Hollywood Blvd. Suite 1200
Los Angeles, CA 90028-6329
Phone (323) 960-3500
Fax (323) 960-3508
E-mail mediarelationsdir@scientology.net

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY IN GERMANY SUES GERMAN GOVERNMENT TO END HARASSMENT BY STATE SECURITY POLICE

ON SAME DAY, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT CONDEMNS SURVEILLANCE OF SCIENTOLOGISTS IN GERMANY AS DISCRIMINATORY

Today, the U.S. State Department, in its 2002 Annual Human Rights Report, criticized the German government for keeping the Churches of Scientology and their members under continued government surveillance despite no evidence of wrongdoing. In Germany, churches of Scientology filed two suits to bring that surveillance to an end.

The Church of Scientology Germany has asked the Administrative Court in Cologne to order the Federal Interior Ministry to cease surveillance of the Church and its parishioners by the state security police, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (OPC), and to declare that such “observation” is illegal. A parallel suit has been filed by the Church of Scientology Berlin against the Interior Ministry of the State of Berlin to end observation by the Berlin state OPC.

The State Department’s 2002 Report released in Washington, D.C., today states: “When the issue of OPC observation was discussed at the annual gathering of state interior ministers in Bremen in December, the ministers also acknowledged that Scientology had not been involved in illegal activities.” The Report also finds that “Private sector firms that screen for Scientology affiliations frequently cite OPC observation of Scientology as a justification for discrimination.” Instances of such discrimination can be found at http://humanrights-germany.org.

The Churches have long stated that “observation” by the OPC, which began in June 1997, is politically motivated, based on no facts, and abuses Scientologists’ rights to freedom of religion and belief.

The Churches’ suits point out that the surveillance in Germany is especially harassing, given the numerous official recognitions of Scientology as a religion: in the United States, Sweden, United Kingdom, Portugal, Italy, Australia, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand and Taiwan.

“The German government’s surveillance of Scientology is shown, by that government’s own investigations, to be wholly unwarranted,” said Leisa Goodman, Human Rights Director of the Church of Scientology International. “The State Department says in their report today that surveillance is the primary cause of abuse and religious discrimination against Scientologists. The question is: Why does the German government persist in this harassment despite its own findings that Scientologists are law-abiding citizens? The government’s conduct violates the fundamental principles of democracy.”

U.S. Congressmen have protested the measure on the grounds that “placing individuals under government surveillance because of their religious beliefs is a clear human rights violation.”

FACT SHEET:
BACKGROUND TO SURVEILLANCE OF SCIENTOLOGISTS IN GERMANY

Surveillance of the Churches of Scientology and their members by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, begun in June 1997, has never been supportable. Major and prolonged investigations into Scientology organizations in Germany have all been dismissed with no evidence of wrongdoing found: in Hamburg, starting in 1991 and dismissed 1994; in Stuttgart, starting in 1992 and dismissed in 1997; and in Munich, starting in 1984 and ending in 1994. The memorandum of dismissal by Hamburg’s senior state prosecutor was typical: He noted that despite exhaustive investigations throughout the length and breadth of Germany, no evidence of illegal activity had been found. No evidence has ever been found because none exists.

In defiance of these facts, however, and directly contrary to the principles of fair justice inherent in a democracy, the German government has kept the Church and its members under some form of government “investigation” for 30 years.

Yet the government’s own investigations provide ample evidence that these measures are harassment. Specifically, on October 25, 1996, prior to surveillance of the Church, Germany’s leading daily, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, reported that German federal ministries, including the Interior Ministry, had concluded no evidence existed to justify it. An Associated Press wire of November 5, 1996, also reported this, based on an expert opinion drawn up for the Interior Ministry of Niedersachen, one of Germany’s 16 states. The expert opinion concluded that the Church of Scientology “lacks political objectives necessary for an observation” and that Scientology “is not a politically determined organization.”

Despite these clear findings, eight months later the federal Minister of Interior reversed his position, apparently under intense pressure from the Bavarian Interior Ministry. According to U.S. State Department documents released to the Churches under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, the federal Minister’s reversal persuaded all but one of Germany’s 16 states to place the Church under surveillance. Only Schleswig-Holstein refused. When the Schleswig-Holstein Interior and Justice Ministers reviewed their decision in January 1999, they concluded that the results of observation in the other German states fully justified Schleswig-Holstein’s refusal to participate in groundless and unconstitutional surveillance of the Church.

As further evidence that surveillance of Scientologists is harassment, in December 2002 the chairman of the Ministers of Interior Conference in Germany was obliged to admit that six years of OPC surveillance of the Church and its members had, once again, produced no evidence of illegal activity. Moreover, a “Special Alerts Office” on Scientology set up by the Bundeskriminalamt [Federal Criminal Office] in February 1995 had been closed down in February 2001 for that exact reason. The Conference chairman’s statement reiterated a November 2000 statement by the federal government making the same point: No evidence existed of illegal activities by the Church of Scientology Germany or its members.

The suits filed by the churches of Scientology also cite a December 2001 ruling by the Berlin Administrative Court, which enjoined the Berlin state OPC from attempting to recruit Scientology parishioners for purposes of infiltration or spying on the Church. The Court noted that no evidence existed to justify such measures and particularly criticized the OPC for seeking to conduct a “permanent observation” despite such lack of evidence.

Surveillance by the German state security police is a politically motivated, planned campaign of harassment and discrimination against the Church and its parishioners, in flagrant violation of international human rights instruments ratified by Germany.

Scientology has been officially recognized as a religion by governments including the United States, Sweden, Portugal, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan and Kyrgyzstan, and by scores of governmental agencies and courts in Europe, including more than 40 court rulings in Germany.