The french Assemblée Nationale [Congress] ready to start war against cults PARIS, 11 juin (AFP) - Paris, june 11, 2000: (AFP) The struggle against cults should be considerably reinforced by a specific judicial arsenal, according to a bill initiated by the socialist group, and shall be examined on june 22d by the national assembly.

The parliament has "hesitated for long" before planning specific anti-cult dispositions, but this time, it has decided to "take the bull by horns", said the deputy PS Catherine PICARD, reporter of the text and president of the Task Force to study cults in the french assembly.

Socialist congressmen have planned to the order of the day the discussion about the bill of the french senator UDF Nicolas ABOUT, which was adopted in the Senate in December. The text's purpose is to allow the political authorities to dissolve "moral entities" having been condemned many times - either themselves or their executives, for some typically cultic offences, such as endangering people, illegal school studies, abuse of trust, etc.

But they have prepared a series of motions to make this bill more efficient and to rewrite its bases.

The socialist deputies want to attribute to justice, and not the political power, the possibility to dissolve cults having been sentenced at least twice by justice.

This possibility to dissolve was asked, between else, by the french Mission to Combat Cults (MILS).

"MENTAL MANIPULATION" MISDEMEANOR The socialists deputies plan also to create a "mental manipulation" offence, which should allow to launch more easily judicial suits against cults. It should apply to "important and reiterated pressures" exerted against a person "in order to create and exploit a physical or psychological dependance" state, by a "group having as purpose or as effect to create or to exploit" these dependances.

The offence would be punished up to 200000 FF amend and two years jail, according to the text. The punishment could amount to 5 years and 500000 FF if it was committed against specially vulnerable persons.

A Congress source added that the text could allow to engage proceedings without having to ask if the person having been victimized was agreeing or not.

The struggle against cults should be the more easy by the fact that "for the first time, the legislator gives an embryo of definition of what is a cult", has said the same source.

The propositions of the socialist group should find a large agreement into the congress, as they take most of the disposals from the RPR deputy Eric Doligé, author of a Bill on mental manipulation, or Jean Tiberi, Paris Mayor.

Like M. Tiberi, socialists have proposed to forbid a cult having been ialready sentenced to install istelf near a school, an hospital, a dispensary or other institutions dealing with vulnerable persons.

They suggest as well, as did M. Tiberi, to forbid advertisement toward young people, from a cult already sentenced Moreover, to facilitate the sentencing of cults by justice, the socialist deputies included also the senatorial bill to extend the penal responsability of moral entities to some other offences: offence to impede assistance or to omit to assist, provocation to suicide, family abandon complicity or complicty regarding cure deprival or food deprival to minor of less than 15.

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