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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 4, 2002
STATEMENT BY CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY INTERNATIONAL REGARDING STATE DEPARTMENT’S HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT ON GERMANY
The Church of Scientology, responding to the State Department’s Annual Human Rights Report on Germany, has released further details of the religious discrimination the Report describes against an American racing bike school and its founder.
A Church spokeswoman said today that Keith Code, who founded the California Superbike School, has trained 15 of the last 20 U.S. Superbike Champions as well as a three-time world champion. She described as “spot-on” the Report’s statement that surveillance of Scientologists by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (OPC) is used in Germany as a “justification for discrimination.”
“It is outrageous that a company training 60,000 race track drivers worldwide and led by one of the top Americans in his field is not permitted to operate in Germany, solely because of the founder’s religion,” said Leisa Goodman, Human Rights Director of the Church of Scientology International.
As stated in the Report, last October Motopark Oschlersleben in Saxony-Anhalt refused to rent a track to the school’s British offices, citing the fact that Mr. Code is a Scientologist as a reason to deny the School its facilities. The School estimates that Motopark’s denial cost the American company $500,000 in lost revenue.
Ms. Goodman said today that the “surveillance” of Scientologists by the OPC amounts to a campaign of harassment and intimidation. She added that the Church has extensive evidence that the OPC has even offered bribes to Scientology parishioners to act as “covert agents” for the OPC inside their own churches. The State Department’s Report notes that in December, a Berlin court enjoined the OPC from this practice on the grounds that no evidence existed to justify it.
“A governmental policy of boycotting and blacklisting continues to deny Scientologists basic human rights in Germany,” said Ms. Goodman.
Late last year, U.S. Representatives Ben Gilman and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen introduced two separate bills to the House of Representatives to impose economic penalties on countries practicing religious discrimination.
