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[The Danish High Court awarded the Church of Scientology ...]

Title: [The Danish High Court awarded the Church of Scientology ...]
Date: Saturday, 23 August 1986
Publisher: Weekly Challenger (Florida)
Main source: link (59 KiB)

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The Danish High Court awarded the Church of Scientology in Denmark over 1.4 million Danish Kroner in damages against three apostate members from England. The damages award, one of the highest amounts ever awarded in a Danish court, was the result of a case brought against former church members for their involvement in the theft of sacred upper level church Scriptures from the church in Denmark.

In December 1983, Robin Scott returned to Denmark and was subsequently arrested and taken to prison for the theft of the religious scriptures. Shortly thereafter, Scott was convicted on charges of industrial espionage and after serving a jail sentence was expelled from Denmark.

Following Scott's trial the church began an exhaustive investigation to recover the stolen scriptures which resulted in injunctions against the illegal use of the stolen scriptures in both Scotland and England and the safe return of the stolen materials to the church.

In February of this year, the church filed suit in Copenhagen against the three thieves in order to regain their cost in recovering the stolen scriptures.

On Monday, Aug. 11 the high court judge granted the church's damages claim, ordering the defendents to pay the church 1.4 million DKR within two weeks plus 37,000 DKR in court costs.

According the Danish church spokesman Peter Jensen, "the court has recognized the extreme value of our scriptures and the fact that we are the only rightful owner of them. We feel that the court's decision shows that common criminals who try to steal religious materials in order to make a quick ill-gotten buck will not be tolerated by the Danish court system."

Jensen stated that the judgement will now go to the high court in Scotland and England so that it can be enforced on the defendents.