Belgium Raids Scientology Center, Seizes Documents, Shuts Down Facility
Glosslip was tipped off to reports out of Belgium, which stated authorities in the country had raided a local Scientology center. Teams within Anonymous are translating the articles, but in the meantime, I have received alerts from an article in MenNewsDaily.com who got the story off of Wikinews.org, had the original story here.
Here's what MND is reporting:
Authorities in Belgium have seized documents, financial records and computer equipment form the local branch of the Church of Scientology and then sealed off the building.According to reports, the Church in Belgium is being investigated for extortion and fraud after posting false job openings in newspapers then attempting to get those who applied to join the Church. Several ex-members of the Church also came to authorities after accusations of intimidation and extortion.
Police were investigating the Church there for nearly 10 years prior to the raid.
In a statement to the press, the Church says that the police "violated their fundamental rights" as a religious organization and accused the police of "malicious justice operations." the Church plans to "contest" any charges filed against it. They also state that the postings made were requests for volunteers and not employees.
So far no arrests have been made, but some employees of the Church were detained and questioned by police.
The building remains closed.
Belgian officials had been engaged in an ongoing investigation into the aforementioned allegations and clearly will now be focusing their efforts on ascertaining the necessary data from within the center's data center to corroborate illegal activities which had been reported to the Belgian authorities.
We have it on good authority that we can expect similar raids and closures in the coming weeks from around the globe.
As we gather more intel from our sources, we will keep you posted.
