Copyright 2000 Agence France Presse
Agence France Presse June 22, 2000, Thursday 6:22 AM, Eastern Time HEADLINE: French assembly approves controversial anti-sect bill DATELINE: PARIS, June 22 A controversial law to combat sects that would make "mental manipulation" a crime was passed unanimously in the French National Assembly Thursday, amid outrage from minority religions and civil rights groups.

The law would punish by up to three years in jail acts of "serious and repeated pressure, or the use of techniques to alter the mind of a person, leading him or her to commit a harmful act."

Another clause would allow judges to dissolve associations that have twice been convicted on charges such as endangering lives, illegal use of medicine or duplicitous advertising.

"We need to give judges repressive tools," said deputy Catherine Picard, who steered the bill through the committee stage in parliament. "The law is a response to the evolution of society and the growing importance that sects have in it."

Pressure to outlaw sects has grown in France after the mass suicides of members of the Order of the Solar Temple in the mid-1990s, and allegations of extortion and brain-washing levelled at a number of other cults.

But the proposed law, which has the backing of the ruling Socialist party, has been condemned as an assault on free speech, and an infringement of the Declaration of Human Rights, which is incorporated in France's constitution.

Last week representatives of mainly American religious groups took out a full-page advertisement in the International Herald Tribune newspaper calling on Prime Minister Lionel Jospin to withdraw the bill, or see France "compared to China" in its disrespect for human rights.

The Church of Scientology, which believes it is a principal target of the planned legislation, said the bill was a "fascist exercise worthy of a totalitarian state."

"This is how fascism begins. You have a law introduced by one government aimed at a certain group of people. Before you know it new governments come in and turn it on to different victims," said Scientology spokesman Jean Dupuis.

He said legal experts had told the church that elements of the bill were almost certainly in contravention of the French constitution, and it would therefore be stopped by the country's constitutional court.

Opponents of the bill were encouraged by a statement from the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights earlier this month which said it would "eliminate all liberty of association in France."

However the statement drew a caustic response from the head of the government's Mission to Combat Sects Alain Vivien, who said that the federation "seemed to have fallen into the hands of scientologists and perhaps other transnational sects."

According to a recent poll, 73 percent of French people believe sects are a danger to democracy, and 86 percent are in favour of banning certain of them such as the Church of Scientology or the Order of the Solar Temple.

The bill originated in the upper house the Senate and was considerably toughened by a series of amendments proposed by deputies in the Assembly. It now goes back to the Senate for a second reading.

The only caveat Thursday was raised by Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou who recommended a period of "reflection" to consider the law's impact and possibly to "tighten up its wording."

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