Police sources say a raid on the Moscow headquarters of the Church of Scientology earlier this yr revealed spy tools put in in reconciliation rooms. A leak claims the recordings may allegedly be used to blackmail parishioners of the church.
Illegal audio and video recording tools was planted within the headquarters of a non secular group located on Taganskaya Street in downtown Moscow, says Russia’s Investigative Committee consultant Yulia Ivanova.
“As part of criminal action a search was made in the premises occupied by the religious association. The search revealed special technical devices, used for surreptitious obtaining of information, being installed in the personal interview rooms,” Ivanova mentioned, including that investigation on the problem continues so as to decide who, if anyone, was at fault.
Initial reviews a few search being made within the Church of Scientology headquarters within the middle of the Russian capital emerged in late January.
LifeNews media outlet reviews {that a} search warrant was issued after police obtained a tip {that a} selection of recording units, together with microphones and cameras, had been secretly put in within the Church of Scientology and routinely utilized by its members.
Technical units have been allegedly detected in rooms the place confidential conversations with individuals – so-called ‘auditing’ – happened, LifeNews reported. Aсcording to its police sources, Moscow’s Church of Scientology recorded interviews between visitors and auditors allegedly to later blackmail the previous.
A police supply advised RIA Novosti that “most probably, the recordings were later analyzed to reveal a ‘touchy subject’ of wealthy visitors and to hold it against them. Possibly also to blackmail, which now is the subject of an investigation.”
Scientology, based in 1952 by L. Ron Hubbard, is commonly accused by critics of being a cult and a industrial enterprise. Dubbed as one of essentially the most controversial new religions of the 20th century, it teaches that persons are immortal beings who’ve forgotten their true nature. According to Hubbard, “a civilization without insanity, without criminals and without war, where the able can prosper and honest beings can have rights, and where man is free to rise to greater heights, are the aims of Scientology.”
The Church of Scientology beforehand got here underneath the radar of Russian legislation enforcement authorities again within the 1990s, when intelligence businesses got here throughout questionnaires that Hubbard’s followers distributed to potential members. An intensive evaluation of the booklets confirmed that they met all the standards for ‘hosting professional intelligence activities’, LifeNews reviews.
People weren’t solely requested about their marital standing, spiritual beliefs, pursuits, earnings and hobbies, however as an example, if this or that individual had beforehand served within the navy, Scientologists discovered the actual quantity of his unit and the precise whereabouts of the weapons storage websites.
“Signs of a destructive, totalitarian sect have been found in their activities,” a former worker of the division for combating organized crime in Moscow, who spoke on situation of anonymity, advised LifeNews.
“This sect does not give one any freedom of choice. People are given no chance to leave. They are being kept on a short leash instead, constantly put under pressure. A person becomes dependent on the sect members by virtue of the information that he had given them,” the supply added.
