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Background
My name is Martin Ottmann. I am 36 years old and a German citizen,
currently living in France. My address is 54, rue Pierre Brossolette,
92300 Levallois-Perret.
On February 18th, 1989 I became affiliated with the Church of
Scientology in Munich, Germany. After being a so-called "public
member" for more than one year, I joined in August of 1990 the "Sea
Organization," a "fraternity" that runs the "Advanced Organizations"
and the upper management organizations of Scientology. I became a
full-time member and employee of the "Church of Scientology Flag
Service Organization, Inc." (FSO), located in Clearwater, Florida.
In July of 1992 I returned to Germany and started working in a
printing company of a Scientologist in Frankfurt. In December of 1992
I reported the then owner and the previous owners of the company (all
Scientologists) to the police and the tax authorities, after I had
found out that they had been involved in tax fraud and forgery of
documents. In the later course of a criminal investigation one of the
Scientologists went to jail in 1994. At the time of my reporting these
individuals to the police in late 1992, I became disillusioned with
the Scientology organization and its teachings.
In 1993 I went back to school and due to the public controversy in
Germany surrounding Scientology I became interested in the subject
again and began collecting documents about it. On December 27th, 1993
I sent a report to the U. S. Consulate in Frankfurt, informing them
about fraudulent representations made by the FSO in connection with
the application for visas for foreign Scientology-staffers at U. S.
embassies [Exh. No. 1]. I never received a response to it.
After finishing school in the summer of 1994 and having earned a high
school degree, I began studying social work at the University of
Esslingen in the fall of 1994. I concentrated my studies on the
phenomenon of cults and related counseling services. In 1995 I began
my first of two traineeships in a counseling and documentation center
on cults that was run by the Protestant Church in Stuttgart.
Additionally I started giving testimony on behalf of the state
government in a tax-litigation case against a Scientology-organization
in Stuttgart.
Around that time I also became interested in the on-going Scientology
controversy on the Internet. I contacted out-spoken critics of
Scientology in the United States and became eventually involved in
their activities. In the spring of 1996 I was asked by an
ex-Scientologist to give testimony about my personal experiences with
Scientology for a civil suit in California ("Steven
Fishman & Uwe
Geertz vs. Church of Scientology International et al," Superior Court
of the State of California, BC 122468). I provided the plaintiffs with
a lengthy declaration that, although never filed with the court, was
later posted on the Internet [Exh. No. 2].
In the fall of 1996 a German journalist who wanted to produce a
television-documentary on Scientology and who needed background
information contacted me. I started to do research for her, selecting
documents and contacting other ex-Scientologists. During that time I
came across the investigation of the Clearwater Police Department into
the death of
Lisa McPherson, a
young Scientologist who had died in
late 1995 at the Scientology-headquarters in Clearwater. I contacted
the investigating detective and when I later arrived with the
journalist in the Florida area to do a research trip, I was also
interviewed by the police [Exh. No. 3].
Through the year 1997 I continued to make different aspects of
Scientology publicly known, mostly through the Internet
discussion-group "alt.religion.scientology" and at the end of that
year and in March of 1998 I participated in two demonstrations against
Scientology in Clearwater and Los Angeles.
When I reached my degree as social worker in the summer of 1998 and
began working in that field, I ceased all activity as a
Scientology-critic until I was approached by a group of
ex-Scientologists in early 1999 who wanted to create a database of
Scientology documents that were to be made publicly available for
people who were involved in litigation with the Scientologists.
I joined the group in March 1999 and after sorting out my role in the
project I began traveling through various European countries and
collecting documents from private and public sources. A few months
later when it was clear that the project had come to a dead end, I
decided to settle in Paris, France. As I was financially independent
at that time I decided to continue collecting and archiving the
documents and bring the whole project to its anticipated end, while
doing it all alone.
Until today I have read about 500,000 pages of documents on
Scientology. For the archive itself I have selected more than 10,000
individual documents from 31 countries. I plan to finish the work on
the archive within the next 3 or 4 months.
During the summer of 2001 I decided to use some of the documents to
bring the activities of certain Scientology organizations to the
attention of American government agencies. After I did some related
research on the Internet I came to the conclusion that it would be
appropriate to file a citizen complaint with a U. S. Attorney's
Office, as the concerning activities would fall under the authority of
the U. S. federal government.
In December 2001, when I did my last research trip to the United
States, I went to the U. S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles and
informed myself about the proper procedures in filing such a
complaint. Shortly after my return to Europe, I began writing this
affidavit.
31 Dec 2002
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