Hate Groups : Scientology - Former Scientologists demand refund

There is much at stake for the Scientology Church Denmark in a fundamental court process initiated by three former members in the Copenhagen municipal court.

The three women want all the money back they applied to Scientology courses during their years of membership. Altogether it adds up to more than half a million Kroner. But more than that is at stake for the Scientology Church. If they lose the proceedings, there presumably be others who demand refund of greater amounts.

According to the lawyer for the complainants, they have justification to get their money back in that they were subjected to extreme measures of persuasion by which their free will was more or less taken from them.

"It is upsetting when you see how they conduct themselves. If you don't want to continue with the courses, they systematically put you under pressure until you give in and sign up for the next course. The Scientology Church is a commercial enterprise, and an essential part of that consists of financially exploiting people."
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The Scientology Church regards the court proceeding as an expression of pure, unadulterated greed. "Their only goal is to get money, and in their zeal to get it, they are ready to go so far that they are ready to have themselves described as being incapable of handling their own affairs. The circumstance alone, that they are prepared to initiate this court process, does demonstrate that they are entirely in a position to make their own decisions," said the information chief of the Scientology Church, Anette Refstrup.

When the three complainants received a refund for their last course, they simultaneously signed a statement that they were not entitled to receive any more money back. In order to win their case, it is necessary for them to have this statement declared invalid.
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The courses of the Scientology Church have to do with intellectual and spiritual development. When one goes the whole way, then one finally becomes "clear," but that is an infinitely long process, Carlo Siebert believes. The whole time people are given the impression that everything will be all right if they only take the very next course, but, naturally, that is not the case, and the courses get more and more expensive. It is almost impossible to get out of it because the Scientology Church constructs a dependency, which it then exploits, said Carlo Siebert; he wants to use a psychoanalyst in the trial who has experience with the psychological influence the cult uses on its members.

"I intend to employ him to reveal the methods which people are subject to in the Scientology Church," said Siebert.

Because of the complex introductory discussions between the opposing parties, he does not anticipate that the trial could be scheduled before January 1, 2002.
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