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Welcome to NDR Aktuell. It is 9:45pm.

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Depending on where you live you could get the impression...

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...the controversy around the cult of Scientology has calmed down over here.

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But - far from it!

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Meanwhile here in the north,...

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...increasingly in the rural parts,...

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the self-proclaimed church attempts...

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...to draw unwitting people into their clutches.

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According to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution,...

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...Scientology is still very active.

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That Germany hosted the highest ranking defector to date for the first time is all the more significant.

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Hamburg's sect commissioner Ursula Caberta is thrilled accordingly.

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Years ago I dreamt of him knocking at the door here.

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And that we can sit together to develop a strategy...

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...on how to damage the Scientology Organisation even more...

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...how can you stop what's happening inside Scientology, no matter where.

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Mark Rathbun was Scientology's #2 in the USA...

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...he managed to quit in 2004.

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Ever since, says Rathbun, he's being followed by private investigators...

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...and slandered and harrassed by detractors.

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Cults fear nothing more than breakaways.

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They follow each step of the defectors,...

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they won't stop at slander even.

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Mr. Rathbun is demonstrably a violent man,...

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...he committed perjury and instigated others to commit perjury...

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...and is a chronic liar.

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The alleged "chronic liar" came to Hamburg to tell the truth.

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The truth about a cult as he witnessed it,...

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... for 27 years.

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Seven years ago he quit...

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...because questioning members were abused in front of his eyes by a Scientology leader.

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He wanted to make an example.

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He struck a critical member, with fists into his face...

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...and kicked him to the floor.

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When he was on the floor already he kept kicking.

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That's when I understood I have to do something I might regret.

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But I must leave the organisation.

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(Is it true that you're with Scientology now?)

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Last year an ARD movie about a Scientology defector made the claim...

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...that members lose their money to the cult.

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"I got a call from our bank which is also the bank of your wife."

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"She obviously tried to take out a loan of 60.000 D-Mark."

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Mark Rathbun confirms the allegation.

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People are forced to donate money.

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They must even sell their houses.

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They spend all their money on this church.

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The Scientology influence has long been reaching...

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into highest political circles in America, according to Rathbun.

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It must not come to that in Germany, he said,...

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...this being another reason for him to come to Hamburg.