Draft:Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses in France

Jehovah's Witnesses had been present in France since the beginning of the 20th century, and during the first half of this century, they were the subject of occasional accusations by the Catholic Church, the only institution really committed to denouncing sectarianism.{{sfn|Ollion|2014}} This criticism became less clear at the same time as criticism of the sects intensified in the mid-1970s. For a time, the Witnesses were not even considered as a sect by these opponents, before becoming so again in the 1990s.{{sfn|Ollion|2014}}

File:Stolperstein Hardenbergstr 16 (Charl) Otto Reinhold Siegel.jpg

Prior to World War II, the French government banned the Association of Jehovah's Witnesses in France, and ordered that the French offices of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society be vacated.{{harvnb|Writing Committee|1980|pp=88}}: "This is to inform you that by order of the Ministry of the Interior, the Association 'La Tour de Garde' and the Association of Jehovah's Witnesses in France are no longer authorized to exercise their activity, and that as a result the Watch Tower office situated 129 rue du Faubourg Poissonniere in Paris has been closed and the premises must be vacated. In October 1939, "about six weeks after the beginning of the war", the organization of Jehovah's Witnesses was banned in France.{{sfn|Writing Committee|1980|pp=87}}

In that period they suffered severe persecution and some were executed, as for example in eastern France, many Jehovah's Witnesses were sent to concentration camps because of their religious beliefs and their refusal to support the war, which conflicted with their neutral stance.{{sfn|EHRI}} François Hankok was transferred to the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp in November 1947.{{sfn|Fautré|2016|p=18}} Jehovah's Witnesses, such as Simone Arnold Liebster were restricted before and after the Nazi occupation and children in schools were pressured to make the "Heil Hitler" salute through punishment.{{sfn|Writing Committee|1980|pp=106}}{{sfn|USC|2007}} Swiss pioneer Werner Schutz had been arrested and deported from France for his missionary activities there.{{sfn|Fautré|2016|p=16}} After the war, Jehovah's Witnesses in France renewed their operations.

After being liberated by the Nazis on October 23, 1942 for his missionary activities, Karl Fritz Hugel was captured by French soldiers who took him to Alsace, probably to Schirmeck concentration camp, where he died shortly afterwards.

On September 10, 1943, Antoine Feyermuth who lived in Lingolsheim, was executed in Berlin after being interrogated in Strasbourg for refusing military service.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=255}}

Marcel Sutter, René Unterner and his wife, Margarite were interned in Schirmeck.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=246}} René Unterner was beheaded at the age of 19 on September 3, 1943 in Brandenburg for being a conscientious objector.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=247}} On November 5, 1943 Marcel Sutter was beheaded with an axe for stating his objection to military duty as one of Jehovah's Witnesses.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=247}}

Alfred Benedick (Strasbourg), brothers Charles and Henri Merlign (Saverne) and Raymond Gentes (Saverne) were gillotined in Brandenburg on August 9, 1943 for refusing military service and wearing the uniform.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=255-256}} On February 17, 1944, the Nazis went to pick up Raymond Gentes' widow and her son to transfer them to the camp in Schelklingen, with the idea of re-Germanizing them, but their fate is not known.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=256-257}}

On 4 February 1944 Jean Hisiger had been executed as a conscientious objector.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=245}}

Heinrich Kurlbaum of German origin was executed in France on May 15, 1944 for being a conscientious objector.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=261-264}}

Otto Siegel was executed on June 5, 1944 in Königsberg Prison by decapitation.

Emmy had hidden Gerhard Liebold and Werner Kurt Gaßner, as well as her adopted son Horst Schmidt, three Jehovah's Witnesses who refused to do military service, in her house. She was executed for this on June 9, 1944 in the Berlin-Plötzensee prison.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=260}}

René Paul Sieffert was taken to Schirmeck concentration camp, then to Natzweiler, to Dachau and finally to Buchenwald (December 12, 1944), but there, in Buchenwald, he succumbed to the atrocious hunger and biting cold that pervaded the hopelessly overcrowded camp.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=255}}

Since the Jehovah's Witnesses were classified as a sect, they began to be persecuted by state authorities, and the civilian population also demonstrated its rejection of them, and acts of vandalism have even been committed.{{sfn|Fautré|2024}} T.L. Early and A.B. Baka report that "A veritable press campaign attacking the Jehovah's Witnesses, who had been subjected to an avalanche of negative and detrimental articles (some 700 recorded between 1996 and 1999) and comments simply because they had been listed as a 'dangerous sect'".{{sfn|Early|Baka|2001}}

On 22 December 1995, the newly formed Parliamentary Commission on Cults in France, by the French National Assembly, published a report also known as the Rapport Gest-Guyard (Alain Gest and Jacques Guyard).{{sfn|Early|Baka|2001}}{{sfn|Gest|Guyard|1995}} On 10 January 1996, the Parliamentary Commission labeled Jehovah's Witnesses and some 172 other groups as "sectes",{{sfn|Tincq|1996}}{{sfn|McCabe|2019|p=49}} and compared them to "criminal associations" with bombings, mass suicides, and assassinations.{{sfn|Fautré|2019|p=31}} The Gest-Guyard report made, among other recommendations, that tax laws should be enforced to control, suppress and eliminate dangerous sects in France.{{sfn|McCabe|2019|p=49}}

The list included 172 "dangerous" cults, and Jehovah's Witnesses were singled out as particularly dangerous,{{sfn|Introvigne|2004|p=73}} with 130,000 members.{{sfn|Gest|Guyard|1995}} In 1999, Abdelfattah Amor condemned the use of the term 'cults' in the list of 173 to refer to religious movements in a United Nations report for religious freedom, and in 2005, Asma Jahangir also held the same view as Amor.{{sfn|Črpić|Ziebertz|2015|p=40}} Donald A. Westbrook reports that the Gest-Guyard report has been criticized both in France and internationally.{{sfn|Westbrook|2024|p=4}}

According to James M. McCabe, the report of the Parliamentary Commission on Cults is based largely on hearsay, rather than legal character, but the report is widely cited to list groups and label them as "dangerous cults".{{sfn|McCabe|2019|p=49}} Westbrook claims that the two largest watchdog groups that have received criticism for their views on health and science are the Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientology.{{sfn|Westbrook|2024|p=7}} Yves Bertrand believed that Scientology and Jehovah's Witnesses do not deserve to be diabolized and "to put on the same level some companies of thought and genuine cultic movements that alienate the freedom of their members, the result is the opposite of the desired goals".{{sfn|Bertrand}} Westbrook believes that it can also be seen "as a quasi-cultural victory for the so-called cults that have persisted in the face of persecution, especially the Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientologists, whose resilience seems to have won the day, even if cultural and legal challenges remain for them and other groups".{{sfn|Westbrook|2024|p=37}}

In 1998 Jean-Pierre Brard was sued by the Jehovah's Witnesses; Brard had been one of the leading actors in the French state's attempt to control the group.{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=27}} He was sued for claiming that the group was responsible for many suicides; it was ruled that though the statement was defamatory it did not constitute "religious bias", resulting in his acquittal.{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=27}} He was sued again by them in 2006, after Brard said their denial of blood transfusions resulted in people's deaths, that they did not pay taxes, and that they covered up serious in-group crimes; this was ruled defamatory but as the statement was deemed to have been made in "good faith" he was again acquitted.{{sfn|Palmer|2011|p=27}}

On December 18, 2002, the Court of Appeal of Versailles reversed a decision by a lower court and convicted Jean-Pierre Brard, and the director of publication of the magazine 15-25 ans, of libeling the Jehovah's Witnesses. The court ordered that a communiqué drafted by it be published in the magazine 15-25 ans as well as in a national daily paper and that the defendants pay €4,000 to the Christian Federation of Jehovah's Witnesses. The verdict related to a September 2001 report on sects published by magazine 15-25 ans, where Brard accused the Jehovah's Witnesses of employing the same methods as international criminal organizations.{{sfn|CAP LC|2002}} The deputy appealed the verdict to the Court of Cassation, which confirmed the conviction of Jean-Pierre Brard but canceled that of the director of publication.[http://legifrance.gouv.fr/affichJuriJudi.do?idTexte=JURITEXT000007068741 Court of Cassation, September 30, 2003, no 03-80039].

{{main|MIVILUDES}}

The United States Department of State reported:

{{quote|[The French] Government has a stated policy of monitoring potentially 'dangerous' cult activity through the Inter-ministerial Monitoring Mission against Sectarian Abuses (MIVILUDES). … In 1997 the special prison at Strasbourg for Jehovah's Witnesses for refusing conscription was still active. In January 2005, MIVILUDES published a guide for public servants instructing them how to spot and combat 'dangerous' sects. … The Jehovah's Witnesses were mentioned"{{sfn|United States Department of State|2006}}}}

Jehovah's Witnesses appealed on March 6, 2022 against MIVILUDES for publishing "defamatory passages" against them, in which it uses expressions such as “sectarian aberrations” and stated that although only 2% of the complaints made involve Jehovah's Witnesses, MIVILUDES devoted almost 20% of its 2021 report to them.{{sfn|United States Department of State|2023}} The Jehovah's Witnesses also claimed that MIVILUDES has made "unsubstantiated and defamatory claims" against them and that its 2021 report "failed to follow basic scientific methodology and is not supported by any authoritative scientific works", and "unlawfully stigmatizes the more than 136,000 peaceful citizens of France who are Jehovah's Witnesses".{{sfn|United States Department of State|2023}} On July 14, 2024, Jehovah's Witnesses won the case and the Paris administrative court ordered the state to pay them €1500.{{sfn|Le Figaro|AFP|2024}}

The association of Jehovah's Witnesses have lost and won court cases regarding their tax-exempt status, specifically concerning action on the part of the government of France to imposed a retroactive 108% tax on all donations received to the organizational body of Jehovah's Witnesses in France, and/or a 60% tax on incoming donations.

In January 1996, the authorities initiated an exhaustive official audit to find faults in order to fine the 'Association les Témoins de Jéhovah'; the audit took 18 months (more than 1 year which is the normal statute), but found no corruption in the handling of donations.{{sfn|McCabe|2019|p=49}}

In 1999, the country demanded back taxes on donations to the religious group's organization from 1993 and 1996, which would have been €57.5 million.

On October 5, 2004, the Court of Cassation—the highest court in France for cases outside of administrative law—rejected the Witnesses' recourse against taxation at 60% of the value of some of their contributions, which the fiscal services assimilated to a legal category of donations close to that of inheritance and subject to the same taxes between non-parents.[http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/affichJuriJudi.do?idTexte=JURITEXT000007048432 Court of Cassation, October 5, 2004, 03-15.709] (French). In the case of two local associations of Jehovah's Witnesses, the Council of State, the supreme court for administrative matters, ruled that denying the legal status of {{lang|fr|associations cultuelles}} on grounds of accusations of infringement of public order was illegal unless substantiated by actual proofs of that infringement.[http://www.conseil-etat.fr/Decisions-Avis-Publications/Decisions/Selection-des-decisions-faisant-l-objet-d-une-communication-particuliere/Section-du-contentieux-sur-le-rapport-de-la-8eme-sous-section-Seance-du-31-mai-2000-lecture-du-23-juin-2000 Council of State, June 23, 2000] (French).

France's Ministry of the Interior sought to collect 60% of donations made to the denomination's entities; Witnesses called the taxation "confiscatory" and appealed to the European Court of Human Rights.

{{quote|"Jehovah's Witnesses awaited a ruling by the ECHR on the admissibility of a case contesting the government's assessment of their donations at a 60 percent tax rate. The government had imposed the high rate relative to other religious groups after ruling the group to be a harmful cult. If the assessed tax, which totaled more than 57 million euros (approximately $77.5 million) as of year's end, were to be paid, it would consume all of the group's buildings and assets in the country."{{sfn|United States Department of State|2009}}}}

{{quote|"France's highest court of appeal, the Cour de cassation, has handed down its decision in a case between the Association Les Témoins de Jéhovah, a not-for-profit religious association used by Jehovah's Witnesses in France, and the national tax department, the Direction des services fiscaux. Following a tax inspection lasting 18 months, the tax department established that Association Les Témoins de Jéhovah, whose sole revenue consists of religious donations by its adherents, was run in a completely benevolent fashion, and that its activities were not commercial or for profit. Nevertheless, the tax department levied a 60-percent tax on the religious donations made over a period of four years, between 1993 and 1996. … This is the first time in their 100-year existence in France that Jehovah's Witnesses have been taxed in this manner. … Furthermore, this tax has not been imposed on any other religious organization in France. The Association Les Témoins de Jéhovah has decided to institute proceedings against this confiscatory taxation before the European Court of Human Rights."{{harvnb|Office of Public Information of JW's|2004}}: "French High Court confirms 60-percent confiscatory tax measure on religious donations"}}

In Association Les Témoins de Jéhovah v. Direction des Services Fiscaux challenged the denial of tax-exempt status for Association Les Témoins de Jéhovah, the not-for-profit corporation used by Jehovah's Witnesses in France. Religious associations (“{{lang|fr|associations cultuelles}}”, the legal status defined by the 1905 law on the Separation of the Churches and the State) in France can request exemption from certain taxes, including taxes on donations, if their purpose is solely to organize religious worship and they do not infringe on public order. According to the French tax administration, tax-exempt status was denied because:

{{blockquote|The association of Jehovah's Witnesses forbids its members to defend the nation, to take part in public life, to give blood transfusions to their minor children and that the parliamentary commission on cults has listed them as a cult which can disturb public order.{{cite web |url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/rt_franc1.htm#witness |title=Religious Intolerance In France}}}}

On June 30, 2011, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) unanimously ruled that France's imposing a retroactive tax for the years 1993 and 1996 had violated Jehovah's Witnesses' right to freedom of religion{{sfn|Vision}}{{sfn|Canada.com|2011}} under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.[http://hudoc.echr.coe.int/eng-press?i=003-3593926-4069518 Chamber judgment Association Les Témoins de Jéhovah v. France 30.06.11] HUDOK The ruling marked the first time France was found in violation of article 9.{{sfn|HUDOC|2011}}{{sfn|ECHR News|2011}}

The tax ruling was overturned by the European Court of Human Rights on June 30, 2011.{{sfn|Richardson|2015|p=298}} On July 5, 2012, the ECHR ordered the government of France to repay €4,590,295 in taxes, plus interest, and to reimburse legal costs of €55,000. On December 11, 2012, the government of France repaid €6,373,987.31 ($8,294,320).{{cite web |url=http://www.jw.org/en/news/by-region/europe/france/france-returns-funds-collected-illegally/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121214201845/http://www.jw.org/en/news/by-region/europe/france/france-returns-funds-collected-illegally |archive-date=2012-12-14 |title=France Returns Funds Collected Illegally From Jehovah's Witnesses}}[http://www.humanrightseurope.org/2012/07/judges-order-e4-million-jehovah%E2%80%99s-witnesses-award/ Judges order €4 million Jehovah’s Witnesses award] Human Rights Europe

On March 4, 2002, Kouchner's law was accepted in the health system, which makes it possible to ignore the willingness of Jehovah's Witnesses to refuse a blood transfusion, to receive a treatment containing one of the main components, or to request an alternative treatment to transfusion.{{harvnb|Lacorne|Philip-Gay|Laurence|McConnell|Rosen|2021}}

The Kouchner Law has given full authorization to medical personnel to disregard the wishes of the patient or the patient's parents to receive medical treatment.{{sfn|Garraud|2014}} The Administrative Court of Lille noted that the Public Health Code states that no medical intervention can be performed without the patient's consent, but also recognized that it was the duty of physicians not to respect the patient's will when her life was in imminent danger.{{sfn|Petrini|2014|p=396}}

Other court cases have concerned the rights for patients, or of minor patients' legal guardians, to refuse medical treatment even if there is a risk of death. For example, in a 2001 case, doctors at a French public hospital who gave blood products to a patient with an acute kidney injury were found not to have committed a mistake of a nature to involve the responsibility of the State.[http://www.conseil-etat.fr/Actualites/Communiques/La-transfusion-d-un-patient-pour-le-sauver-en-depit-de-son-refus-n-engage-pas-la-responsabilite-de-l-Etat Council of State, Press release, October 26, 2001].

The Council stated that "there does not exist, for the doctor, an abstract and unalterable hierarchy between the obligation to treat the patient, and that to respect the will of the patient," concluding that faced with a decision to treat patients against their will, doctors do not have a legally predefined obligation to treat the patient, nor do they have a legally predefined obligation to abide by their wishes. One year later, after the adoption of the Kouchner Law on patients' rights and quality of the health system,{{sfn|Legifrance|2002}} the Council of State recalled that not respecting the patient's wishes violates his individual freedom, but the doctor did not commit a fault if under extreme conditions he performs an intervention "necessary and proportionate to its state" in order to try to save the patient's life.{{harvnb|Rougé-Maillart|Jousset|Gaches|Gaudin|Penneau|2004}}

File:Vandalisme de graffitis sur une salle du Royaume.jpg

Vandalism targeting these places of worship began after Jehovah's Witnesses were added to the list of sects released by the Parliamentary Commission in 1995.{{sfn|EAJW|2021|p=}} Jehovah's Witnesses in France have reported hundreds of attacks against their adherents and places of worship, and intimidating or sending threatening letters.{{sfn|Early|Baka|2001}} Over the last 25 years, hundreds of instances of vandalism have been documented. In 2009, the United States Department of State states:

{{quote|"According to representatives for the Jehovah's Witnesses community, there were 65 acts of vandalism against the group in the country through December including Molotov cocktails aimed at Jehovah's Witnesses' property. … According to the leaders of the Jehovah's Witnesses community in the country, there were 98 acts against individuals for 2006 and 115 acts in 2007."{{sfn|United States Department of State|2009}}}}

On 19 December 1952, France's Minister of the Interior banned La Tour de Garde (The Watchtower) magazine, citing its position on military service.{{sfn|Verdier|1952|p=12024}}{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=282}}{{sfn|Myazhiom|1999|p=287}} During the ban of The Watchtower in France, publication of the magazine continued in various French territories. In French Polynesia, the magazine was covertly published under the name, La Sentinelle, though it was later learned that The Watchtower had not been banned locally.{{cite book|title=2005 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses|pages=88–89}} In Réunion, the magazine was published under the name, Bulletin intérieur from January 1956 to April 1975.{{sfn|Nerlich|2016|p=282}}2007 Yearbook of Jehovah's Witnesses, p. 255 The ban was lifted on November 26, 1974.{{sfn|Pandraud|1974|p=11996}}

Since the parliamentary report in which Jehovah's Witnesses were called a "dangerous" sect, they have had difficulty building their kingdom halls.{{sfn|Dericquebourg|2004|p=86}} Hervé Machi reports that many distressed mayors constantly ask him if they have the prerogative to refuse the building permit application of an association for the worship of Jehovah's Witnesses.{{sfn|Gerbelot|2012}} Increasingly, the French authorities in Lyon are refusing to allow Jehovah's Witnesses to rent facilities despite the fact that they have been meeting for more than 20 years.{{sfn|McCabe|2019|p=51}} Numerous French towns have refused to issue building permits and in nine cases have been prevented from building Kingdom Halls, leaving them to meet in old halls or in the homes of individual Jehovah's Witnesses.{{sfn|McCabe|2019|p=51}}

In 1999, the former mayors of Beuvillers and Sainte-Hélène refused planning permission for places of worship.{{sfn|Early|Baka|2001}}

On November 6, 2002, the Auch court of large claims ordered the dissolution of an organization that had been explicitly created to prevent Jehovah's Witnesses from constructing a place of worship in Berdues. The court found that the organization's goal was to "hinder the free exercise of religion".{{sfn|Droit|2008}}

On October 17, 2002, the administrative court of Orléans annulled a municipal decision issued by the mayor of Sorel-Moussel, which granted him the preemptive right to purchase a plot of land that the local Jehovah's Witness community had intended to buy and use for the construction of a house of worship. The court considered that the mayor had abused his right of preemption, since he exerted it without having an urbanization project prior to preemption.{{cite web|url=http://www.coordiap.com/juri01.htm|title=CAPLC pour la Liberté de Conscience, religion, croyance, conviction, pensée, culte|access-date=4 May 2016}}

On June 13, 2002, the administrative court of Poitiers annulled a municipal decision issued by the mayor of La Rochelle, which refused the use of a municipal room to the Jehovah's Witnesses on grounds that the Witnesses were listed in the 1995 parliamentary report; the court ruled that, while a mayor may refuse the use of a room for a motive of public order, the motive that he used in this case was not a motive of public order.

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:Category:Persecution of Jehovah's Witnesses

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