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Scientologists awarded half a million dollars in suit against critic
The Church of Scientology sued former church official Gerry Armstrong for $10 million, saying he had violated a 1986 legal settlement by repeatedly speaking out against the group and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard. (Armstrong got $800,000 from the religious group in that settlement after he claimed he was being bullied by Scientology officials.)

Marin Superior Court Judge Lynn Duryee didn't award punitive damages, but ordered Armstrong to give back the settlement money.

"Because a previous judgment had already awarded the church $300,000 from Armstrong—who cited bankruptcy and did not pay it—Duryee ordered the defendant to pay the church another $500,000, or equal the amount the church had paid him," the Marin Independent Journal reports.

Armstrong says he still2/17/2005 1:44PM won't pay. "Never," he said. "I will outlast them." He also promises to keep criticizing Scientology. "When you can silence someone about a religion, just imagine," he said.

Armstrong's lawyer says Judge Duryee "made a deal with the devil," and said the case isn't really about Armstrong's 1986 settlement. "This suit is really directed at other people who might be inclined to speak out," he told the San Francisco Chronicle. "It's a PR ploy to keep other people silent."

Scientology officials want Armstrong imprisoned.

"This wasn't contempt of the church, this was contempt of the court," lawyer Andrew Wilson told the paper. "He needs to be put in jail not because he spoke out but because he thumbed his nose at the court."

Religious freedom:

• Police make door-to-door searches for weapons in restive Poso | Hundreds of police were Wednesday searching door-to-door for weapons in their hunt for attackers targeting Christians in the religiously-mixed Poso district of Central Sulawesi (AFP)
  
  
• Uganda: Crackdown over murder of two missionaries | Five people have been arrested in connection with the recent killings of two American missionaries in northern Uganda, bringing the total number taken into custody to 12. District officials said police were on the lookout for more suspects (IRIN)
  
  
• Three dead in Nigerian religious feud, total 226 | Muslim militia killed three Christians in central Nigeria bringing the unofficial death toll from two months of tit-for-tat violence to 226 (Reuters)
  
  
• Nepal cracks down on Easter celebrants | Nepal cracked down on Christians celebrating Easter in a public area here by detaining two of the organizers for questioning (IANS, India)
  
  
• It's Christian bells vs. Muslim prayer calls | Hamtramck Muslim community members' request to amend the city noise ordinance so mosques can use loudspeakers for a call to prayer has divided some residents along religious lines (Detroit Free Press)
  
  

Vietnam Christians protest oppression:

• Vietnam accused of rights abuses | The New York-based group Human Rights Watch has accused Vietnam of repressing a minority Christian community in the Central Highlands (BBC)
  
  
• Vietnam beefs up checkpoints in restive highlands | Police and soldiers increased road checkpoints in two central Vietnam highland provinces where ethnic minority protests erupted at the weekend, and officials said on Wednesday no one had been killed in the unrest (Reuters)
  
  

Crime:

• Two injured in fight over religion | Christian family members reportedly demanded conversion, but police doubt story (Daily Times, Pakistan)
  
  
• Fundamentalist Christian tries SOS on Muslim | A middle-aged man bundled 17-year old Muslim girl into a white van and drove off to a local park where the fundamentalist Christian tried to "save her soul" by demanding at knifepoint that she convert to Christianity (Saturday Star, South Africa)
  
  

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April (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48