FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

	Contact: Leisa Goodman
	(323) 960-3500

January 29, 1999

—Government will have to pay damages: Scientologists demand removal of responsible ex-minister from human rights committee—

A German member of the Church of Scientology has won rulings from a German appeals court that a government order denying Scientologists the right to operate employment agencies is illegal.

The Church of Scientology said today that based on the ruling, they will demand that Norbert Bluem, the Labor Minister who issued the order and who is now an MP in the new Parliament, removed from a Parliamentary human rights committee to which he was appointed last month.

Ms. Claudia Engel’s licence to operate an au pair agency was withdrawn in 1994 following a discriminatory directive from the Federal Labor Minister of the former German government. The directive denied Scientologists the right to obtain job procurement licences, solely on the basis of their membership of the Church.

In two separate but related cases, the State Social Appeals Court of Rhineland-Palatinate ruled yesterday that neither Ms. Engel’s conduct nor the German government’s information about Scientology justified the decree. The Court noted that an investigation by the German government’s internal security agency lasting almost two years has failed to establish any negative facts about Scientology.

The decisions will influence a separate, damages case Ms. Engel brought against the German Ministry of Labor over the directive. That case has been on hold pending the outcome of the case before the Appeals Court in Rhineland Palatinate. Based on yesterday’s rulings, the German government is bound to pay Ms. Engels an amount of damages that will have to be determined.

The Appeals Court disagreed with the German government’s assertions that negative court precedents exist about Scientology’s religious status in Germany. There have been positive court decisions and no final decision has been reached, the Court noted. In November 1997, one of Germany’s most senior courts, the Federal Administrative Supreme Court, threw out a government attempt to have a Scientology mission classified according to commercial criteria. The Supreme Court held that the Mission could not be so classified as the services it offered were spiritual in nature. The government subsequently dropped its suit against the Mission.

The ruling yesterday was hailed by Scientologists as a major step forward in their ongoing battle to bring an end to governmental religious discrimination against their members in Germany. There are now more than 20 reports by international human rights bodies criticizing Germany for human rights abuses against Scientologists, including five by the U.S. State Department and four by United Nations bodies. In September 1997, Ms. Engel gave oral testimony about the discrimination against her at a public hearing by the Commission for Security and Cooperation in Washington, D.C. Scientologists John Travolta, Chick Corea and Isaac Hayes, as well as representatives of other minority religions, also testified at the hearing about governmental religious discrimination in Germany.

Leisa Goodman, Human Rights Director of the Church of Scientology International, commended the Appeals Court for “a bold decision that upholds the German Constitution against intimidation and discrimination of religious minorities.” She added that the illegal directive was authored by the same ex-minister who instructed government labor offices to mark companies owned by individual Scientologists with an “S”, a labelling that has been described an “an electronic Star of David.”

Ms. Goodman said that Scientologists will continue to campaign for religious freedom and human rights in Germany.