2007 Trial Proposal
The Belgian government denied Scientology the status of religion in 1997, and began investigating its practices and finances after ex-Scientologists said they had been subjected to intimidation and extortion. Concluding the ten-year investigation, on September 4, 2007, a Belgian prosecutor recommended that 12 persons associated with Scientology and two legal entities – the Belgian Church of Scientology and Scientology's Office of Human Rights – should be prosecuted on counts of extortion, fraud, organized crime, obstruction of medical practice, illegal medical practice, invasion of privacy, conspiracy and commercial infractions like abusive contractual clauses. An administrative court would decide if the case would go ahead and charges would be pressed. The court's decision was expected to be announced within a few months.
Read more about this topic: Scientology In Belgium
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“You may talk about Free Love, if you please, but we are to have the right to vote. To-day we are fined, imprisoned, and hanged, without a jury trial by our peers. You shall not cheat us by getting us off to talk about something else. When we get the suffrage, then you may taunt us with anything you please, and we will then talk about it as long as you please.”
—Lucy Stone (1818–1893)