FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 1, 2003

CONTACT:
Linda Simmons Hight
Media Relations Director
Phone: (323) 960-3500
Fax: (323) 960-3508
E-mail mediarelationsdir@scientology.net

CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY LAWSUIT FORCES BERLIN INTERIOR MINISTRY TO END SURVEILLANCE OF SCIENTOLOGY AFTER SIX YEARS

A March 2003 lawsuit filed by the Church of Scientology Berlin against the Berlin Ministry of the Interior (MOI) has resulted in the MOI ending surveillance of the Church and its members.

The Church’s complaint asks the Berlin Administrative Court to forbid the Berlin security services — called the Office for the Protection of the Constitution — from keeping the Church and its parishioners under surveillance. The Church has contended for years that such “observation” is politically motivated, based on no facts, and abuses Scientologists’ rights to freedom of religion and belief.

Now the Berlin MOI has become the first state to publicly declare, in legal papers filed in the lawsuit, that surveillance will end.

A similar suit filed by the Church of Scientology Germany against the federal MOI is pending.

Leisa Goodman, Human Rights Director of the Church of Scientology International, said today, “The OPC had no choice but to yield, because their years-long harassment of Scientologists is blatantly unconstitutional. The courts in Germany have recognised the Church as a religious community.”

In December 2001, the Court forbade the Berlin MOI from attempting to infiltrate the Church.

Scientologists have documented hundreds of human rights abuses against their members and a host of “dirty tricks” by the OPC. These include agents attempting to infiltrate churches, spreading false reports about Scientologists to their employers to get them fired, sowing dissension between church members in an effort to create turmoil within the Church, and even trying to bribe Scientologists to bear false witness against their fellow parishioners.

Recently, however, the states of Northrhine Westphalia and Hessia have quietly dropped surveillance. Schleswig-Holstein has refused to implement it.

Earlier this year, the German Federal Finance Office granted tax exemption to Church of Scientology International, the mother church of the Scientology religion.

Further information can also be obtained at:
http://humanrightswatchgermany.org
http://www.scientology.org/humanrights/