Postings and information about
the Dutch protest against Scientology

Tentoongesteld, Het Parool, August 29 2000

Scientology promised "more openness" while organising an exhibition. Us critics decided to test their notion and picketed the exhibition. Not much progress, alas: they lied, they stole flyers, they sicked the police on us and they threatened us. (Dutch only). The picket pix are on Nantko's page and on the B-Org site.

Appeal of June 9 1999 ruling (fifth lawsuit), August 1999

Appeal of the full-fledged procedure, yet to be scanned and html'ised. Sorry. But take it from me that there's nothing much new in the appeal.

Ruling of June 9, 1999

On June 9, 1999, The Hague court in full procedure ("bodemprocedure") again ruled that my homepage was fully legal, OT-quotes and all. Read the original Dutch ruling or read the English translation. Scientology has appealed this ruling. It is not yet known when pleas will be held.

More picket reports

Boudewijn van Ingen has a Dutch picket page, where more demonstrations are listed. But the best Dutch picket page is the one maintained by Mike Gormez and Jeta Eggers. See especially the October 1999 picket, which protested Scientology's "Human Rights Campaign".

First critics' demonstration

posting to a.r.s., February 22, 1998. Since we had never had a critics' demonstration before, and since Zenon Panoussis (another person sued by Scientology) had now moved from Sweden to The Netherlands, we decided that we would have a go at it. The demo turned out to be quite hilarious. Pictures included. (Warning: file is huge (300k) due to pix.)

CoS Promo campaign (or: how to anger the press while dodging your critics)

posting to a.r.s., July 27, 1996. Recently, CoS Amsterdam announced a new campaign to promote 'more openness' and invited the press. Guess what happened.

Letter to Judge Whyte,

posting to a.r.s., April 4, 1996. Letter sent to Judge Whyte in Gry Ward's case, protesting the list of items Grady Ward was to hand over to Scientology before they depose him. My name is on that idiotic list (see Scientology's "request for production of documents and things"); amongst others, they want his correspondence with me.

ARSCC awards SP6 to Karin Spaink

posting on a.r.s., March 19, 1996. Although I had attested to a Big Win a week earlier, I was yet pleasantly surprised and very much honoured to learn that ARSCC had seen fit to award me the much coveted title 'SP6'.

Reply to Andrew Milne's 'Big Win' posting

posting to a.r.s., March 14, 1996. Andrew Milne posted a press release claiming Scientology had won the lawsuit. He was desperately wrong.

Ruling of March 12, 1996

On March 12 1996, the The Hague court declared my homepage to be fully legal, OT-quotes and all. Read the original Dutch ruling or read the English translation. Scientology has appealed the ruling but hasn't made a move since the summer of 1996. Probably they are waiting for the outcome of the full-fledged procedure.

We have won!

posting to a.r.s., March 12, 1996. Today, the judge ruled in summary proceedings. He only assumed Scientology's rights to OT II and III for the sake of the argument, and threw out all other claims. This is quite a victory for us.

Reply to Leisa Goodman's press release

posting to a.r.s., February 28, 1996. Goodman distributed a press release about the court session. There are some mistakes in it, which I duly pointed out.

A day in court

posting to a.r.s., February 26, 1996. Report of today's court session. McShane (president of RTC, Scientology's copyright bureau and one of the top dogs) was there too, with a gold-coloured suitcase.

Replacement of OT II and OT III

posting to a.r.s., Februari 22, 1996. On Februari 19, only a week before the court session, we finally received a notary statement concerning OT II and OT III. A few days later, I thereupon replaced those parts of the Fishman Affidavit with my own summary and comments.

Masked OT documents

February 19, 1996. A notary finally compared the unmasked, original OT documents to my homepage and marked text fragments that were an exact match. These matches were marked on masked copies of the OT documents. Here are two scans of such pages.

Our lawyers ask for postponement

posting to a.r.s., February 13, 1996. When it turned out that the notary statement that RTC had referred to in the subpoena had not yet been made, our lawyers on Februari 6 moved for postponement. (Almost two weeks later, the statement was finally produced.) Lawyers' letters included. Dutch version.

In parliament, questions were asked

psting to a.r.s., February 23, 1996. On Feb 8, in Parliament questions were asked concerning Scientology. Dutch version.

Church files suit

posting to a.r.s., February 4, 1996. In reply to a new lawsuit filed against me, somebody on a.r.s. was praising me too lavishly, which gave me a chance to publicly assess the current situation.

Antwoord aan Julia Rijnvis

posting to nl.actueel.scientology, 27 januari 1996. Julia Rijnvis, Dutch spokeswoman for Scientology, mailed a message to many of the participants on the Dutch Protest via her staff member Karel Jeelof (kjeelof@digiface.nl). She was not being completely honest, I believed; thus, I replied publicly. (Dutch only)

Kurt Weiland is in town

posting to a.r.s., January 8, 1996. Kurt Weiland (top CoS dog) is in Amsterdam and sent me a fax, wishing to meet me.

Does anybody know Bob Quigley?

posting to a.r.s, December 16, 1995. Scientology brought an ex-FBI agent over to Holland.

Dutch report: Suit has been dropped!

posting to a.r.s., December 12, 1995. Nauta Dutilh - Scientology's lawyers for this case - have definitely dropped the case.

Request for postponement and subsequent dismissal of the lawsuit

fax December 11, 1995 and faxes December 12, 1995. Nauta Dutilh asked for postponement; our lawyer and Planet Internet's lawyer severely opposed this. In the end, Scientology dropped the case. (Dutch versions.)

Lawsuit dismissed?

posting to a.r.s., December 11, 1995. A letter from Nauta Dutilh arrived, asking the court for postponement of the lawsuit. The letter is confused: they think of starting a regular proceedings, i.e. with hearings and testimonies and all, but are not sure.

Dutch arrival: Steven Fishman

posting to a.r.s., December 10, 1995. Steven Fishman has arrived in Amsterdam.

Preparing for court

posting to a.r.s., December 5, 1995. Media attention is increasing now that the court date is approaching. On December 11 (a few days before court) we are planning a public meeting in Amsterdam, with Steven Fishman as our main quest.

Article in Dutch newspaper about Newkid

posting to a.r.s., November 20, 1995. The Dutch newspaper Trouw printed an article on the Newkid matter; somebody asked a few questions.

Weird allegations

posting to a.r.s, November 16, 1995. A certain Jet@aloha.com makes strange accusations against me. Plus, somebody reads my e-mail.

First serious Dead Agenting

posting to a.r.s., November 15, 1995. One of the participants -- Newkid, aka Jan Peter Mante, aka Snorri Helgarsson -- got tied up in an alleged swindle. Felipe and I were mentioned as 'conspirators'. And somebody desperately wanted us to accept some 'hot' tapes...

A new defendant!

posting to a.r.s., November 15, 1995. Planet Internet just confirmed that they will voluntarily add themselves to the list of defendants.

Church files suit in Holland

Posting to a.r.s., November 11, 1995. Andrew Milne, the semi-offical spokesman for Scientology on a.r.s., posted a spiteful press release about Scientology's lawsuit on Nov. 9; here's my reply.

Lawsuit

registered letter, November 8, 1995. The lawsuit that Scientology issued against four Internet providers (XS4ALL, DDS, Cistron and Dataweb and against myself, because of the Fishman Affidavit. The lawsuit - for summary proceedings - is set for December 14. Dutch version: Dagvaarding.

We are finally being sued

posting to a.r.s., November 7, 1995. Our lawyer called: Nauta Dutilh has announced that Scientology will sue four providers - XS4ALL, DDS, Dataweb and Cistron - and myself.

Dutch report: update

a.r.s., October 18, 1995. A mr Alan Cartwright has been flown in from Scientology California and is now phoning all providers involved; nevertheless, nobody is willing to co-operate. Besides myself, Oussama Cherribi (member of parliament) has now received a lawyer's letter.

Dutch action covered by Wall Street Journal Europe

posting to a.r.s., October 12, 1995.

We're getting serious now

posting to a.r.s., October 4, 1995. Posters containing the full Fishman Affidafit have been glued to the walls of Amsterdam; several people have decided to face a lawsuit, if needs be; the protest is covered on prime-time tv; lawyer's letters are being sent to and fro.

Bakker Schut's answer

letter, October 4, 1995. My lawyer, Bakker Schut, answers Scientology's lawyer. He sees no reason why I should comply with Scientology's request. (Dutch).

Nauta Dutilh's summons

letter, received on October 3, 1995. A registered letter from Scientology's Dutch lawyers Nauta Dutilh, in which they summon me to close my homepage (Dutch).

My reply to Helena Kobrin's second e-mail

e-mail, sent on October 5, 1995.

Second e-mail from Helena Kobrin to me

e-mail, sent on September 29, 1995. Helena Kobrin states that I have stolen OT levels on my homepage and refuses to answer my other questions. She again threatens to sue me.

Dutch Protest: a provisional report

posting to a.r.s., September 25, 1995. A Dutch member of Parliament has joined the action and the Fishman homepages are pouring in.

My reply to Helena Kobrin's first e-mail

e-mail, sent on September 25, 1995.

First e-mail from Helena Kobrin

e-mail, received on September 23, 1995. Kobrin summons me to take down my homepage at Planet Internet.

Urgent request to Dutch Internetters

e-mail, sent on September 22, 1995. E-mail asking other people to consider setting up a Fishman homepage (Dutch).

Fishman available at another Dutch provider

posting to a.r.s., September 18, 1995. After the raid on XS4all, I announced a Fishman homepage at another Dutch ISP: Planet Internet.