Monumental Victory for the Scientology Religion in Belgium

In a complete vindication of the Scientology religion and Scientologists, presiding judge rules that entire case was a "serious and irremediable breach of the right to a fair trial." End Quote

(1888PressRelease) April 30, 2016 - Eighteen years of judicial harassment of the Church of Scientology of Belgium and its members ended today when a ruling of the Criminal Court in Brussels became final. The 173-page decision found inadmissible all proceedings against the defendants, including the Church of Scientology of Belgium and the Human Rights Office of Church of Scientology International, thereby declaring all charges of the federal prosecutor to be unfounded.

The decision is final after a period during which the prosecution could have filed an appeal but decided against it on the grounds that the case was comprehensively reviewed by the court.

The Church of Scientology of Belgium welcomes this decision of the prosecution which makes final the judgment of 11 March 2016. This is another of numerous decisions recognizing the rights of Scientologists to be free of stigma and discrimination based on their religious beliefs. Such decisions have been made throughout Europe-in Spain, Italy, UK, Germany, Portugal, Sweden, and the Netherlands-all countries in which the Scientology religion has been recognized, often by supreme courts.

For Eric Roux, spokesman of the Church in Belgium: "This decision is of course a victory for all Scientologists and the end of an unfair harassment, but it is mostly a victory for freedom of religion in Belgium. The federal prosecutor had unjustly sued Scientologists during 18 long years, and not having found any committed offense, despite an extremely thorough investigation, has made the mistake of wanting to continue the harassment based on misinterpretations of the writings of the Founder of Scientology. This type of practice is extremely dangerous for freedom of conscience, and the Court has put things back in order by reminding them of the elementary principles of law and the right of everyone to practice the religion of their choice. The fact that the federal prosecutor has decided not to appeal makes this decision even more important, and I am delighted to think that in the future, this can be useful to those who might suffer discrimination because of their beliefs."

The Church of Scientology was founded in 1954 and has grown to thousands of churches with millions of members in over 180 countries. The Church began in Belgium in 1974 and today sponsors numerous social betterment campaigns, including drug prevention education, restoration of positive moral values, human rights education, and eradicating psychiatric abuse. The Church also works to organize other activities including Interfaith roundtables, distribution of clothes to refugees and clean ups.

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