Paris trial: what the prosecution wants

Just a brief update on the trial because I won't get to it in my coverage for a good while yet...Coverage will resume shortly.

The prosecution is asking for the "dissolution des personnes morales" -- which is to say they want the two Scientology organisations in the dock -- the Celebrity Centre of the L'Association spirituelle de l'Eglise de Scientologie (ASES) and the bookshop Scientologie espace librairie (SEL) -- to be shut down.

Update: because of a change to the law introduced just before the trial, this option is in fact not available to the court, even if parliament corrected what the government says was a mistake the week after it was discovered. See "The Great Escape?" for more details.

They also want the two organisations to be fined two million euros each.

For the six individual defendants, they asked for fines and in four cases suspended sentences:

- for Alain Rosenberg, the managing director of the Celebrity Centre, 150,000 euros and a four-year suspended sentence;
- for Didier Michaux, their star salesman, 50,000 euros and a three-year suspended sentence;
- for Jean-François Valli, the other salesman, 25,000 euros and a three-year suspended sentence;
- for Sabine Jacquart, who was president of the Celebrity Centre, 10,000 euros and a two-year suspended sentence;
- for Aline Fabre, who managed the Purification Rundown, and for Marie-Anne Pasturel, who as agent for G&G in France took orders for the vitamins, 2,000-euro fines.

The lawyers for the plaintiffs did their summing up today too and the hearing took place in a packed courtroom.

The defence will plead tomorrow and Wednesday and then the panel of judges will consider their verdict and any sentences. The judgement will be delivered on October 27, 10.00 am Paris time.

It is worth noting that when the investigating magistrate was putting this case together, the prosecutor at the time had said there was no case to answer.