The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) rules on Thursday March 31 on a complaint filed against the State for the delays in justice in a case linked to Scientology, heard twenty-three years ago but still not judged.
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The investigation targeted the Aubert Institute, a former private school in Vincennes (Val-de-Marne) accused of having applied the precepts of the Church of Scientology without the knowledge of parents of students. Instructed in the Créteil court in 1999, it ended with the referral to court in 2012 of three people and then, seven years later, two additional people and a Scientology association. But since then, the date of their trial has still not been set.
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“Inexplicable” slowness
Me Olivier Morice, who defends former students of the Institute and their parents, denounces the “inexplicable slowness“of the procedure for a case that he judges”not complex“. “Each time, we have problems of slowness for files that target Scientology“, he assures AFP. The court of Créteil conversely judges that the trial hearing time respects “the current standard for this type of records“. A standard “impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic which has considerably extended the deadlines“, specifies the parquet floor to AFP.
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This file was opened in 1998 when the mayor of Vincennes issued reports to the courts on the Aubert Institute. A judicial investigation was then opened in 1999. After thirteen years of investigation, a judge in 2012 requested a trial for three people from the Institute, including its manager for “deception” and “hidden work“. On the other hand, this judge had, in accordance with the requisitions of the prosecution, requested a dismissal of the case for three Scientology organizations likely to be implicated, considering that the principle of reasonable time for judgment had been exceeded concerning these legal persons.
“Scandalous”
In 2014, this decision was overturned by the Paris Court of Appeal, for whom “disregard of the reasonable timein this case had beenwithout affecting the validity of the proceedings“. The court had requested further investigation. Finally in 2019, a trial for “concealment of misuse of corporate assetswas requested for one of the three Scientology associations – Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE-EUROPE) – and two other people, returned for “service provision fraud“. Five people and an association are therefore still waiting since that date to appear before the Créteil court.
On Thursday, the ECHR must rule on the reasonableness or otherwise of the duration of the proceedings. A condemnation from the French statewould show the scandalous nature of the functioning of the judicial authority in relation to this type of case“, which are not “taken seriously enough“, anticipates Me Morice. The proceedings before the ECHR constitute the ultimate recourse for civil parties on this issue. Before seizing the European jurisdiction, they had summoned the State before the Paris court, accusing it of “heavy mistake” and of “miscarriage of justice“, but had been rejected. In their eyes, the investigation had suffered, among other things, from the succession of more than eight investigating judges and a “partial treatmentinformation.
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The Paris court had considered that this was not the case, citing in particular a “multiplicity of searches», financial and psychological expertise carried out. “The assessment of the reasonableness of the duration of a procedure cannot be limited to noting the time elapsed“, he had judged. The appeal of the civil parties, then their appeal in cassation, had been rejected.
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