The Church of Scientology has had its appeal against a fraud conviction quashed by a top court in France.
In 2009 the group was convicted of “organised fraud” for taking financial advantage of vulnerable followers. It was ordered to pay fines of €600,000.
It appealed on the grounds that the conviction violated religious freedom, but the Cour de Cassation did not agree.
The group responded to this by accusing the French government of “anti-religious extremism”, saying that the ruling was “an affront to justice and religious liberty”.
The original conviction fined the operation for preying financially on its followers in the 1990s. It followed complaints made by two women, one of whom said she had been manipulated into turning over €20,000 in 1998 for Scientology products, including as “electrometer” to measure mental energy.
France views Scientology as a cult rather than a religion. Individual Scientologists had been prosecuted before, but the 2009 trial was the first time the organisation as a whole had been convicted.
The group indicated that it might take its case to the European Court of Human Rights.
In France, there are two Scientology outlets, its Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris.
Founded in 1954 by an American science fiction writer, L. Ron Hubbard, the Church of Scientology is recognised as a religion in the United States. It claims a worldwide membership of 12 million, including 45,000 adherents in France.