Germany abandons bid to ban Scientology

Published on Saturday 22 November 2008 18:37

GERMANY is dropping its pursuit of a ban on Scientology after finding insufficient evidence of illegal activity.

But domestic intelligence services will continue to monitor the group, security officials said.

The German branch of the Los Angeles-based Church of Scientology has been under observation by domestic intelligence services for more than a decade.

Top security officials asked state governments in December to begin gathering information on whether they had sufficient grounds to seek a ban.

The Church of Scientology welcomed the ministers' decision to stop seeking a ban as the "only one possible".

"There never was a legal basis to open such proceedings," said Sabine Weber, below, a spokeswoman for Scientology in Germany.

The Church of Scientology called on officials to end the observation and "the discrimination and the harassment that go along with it".

Germany has said it considers Scientology to be in conflict with the principles of the nation's constitution, calling it less a church than a business that uses coercion to take advantage of vulnerable people.

Erhart Koerting, Berlin's top security official, said: "The appraisal of the government at the moment is that (Scientology] is a lousy organisation, but it is not an organisation that we have to take a hammer to."

Interior minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his counterparts from Germany's 16 states agreed that there was not enough proof to justify opening proceedings for a ban on Scientology.