Member Pleads Guilty to Gas Attack

Boris Becker threatens Scientology over Internet

BY ANDREW GRAY

BONN (Reuter) - German tennis star Boris Becker threatened Friday to take legal action against the Church of Scientology unless it stopped using his picture and comments attributed to him on one of its Internet pages.

The organization, which Germany views as anti-democratic and has put under intelligence surveillance, has a picture of Becker and his black wife Barbara at the top of an article headed ``The Trouble with Intolerance.''

A Scientology spokesman said it had not reported anything more than Becker himself said in an interview last year when he said he planned to move to the United States when his son reached school age.

The article, with the sub-heading ``For many minorities, living in Germany means living in fear,'' cited Becker as an example of someone who had suffered ``years of intolerance and abuse, apparently owing to the fact that his wife is black.''

Becker's Munich-based lawyers demanded Scientology withdraw all reference to the former Wimbledon champion and pledge not to use his picture again.

``Boris Becker is in no way prepared to promote the aims of your organization in any manner,'' the lawyers said in a letter addressed to the Church of Scientology International in London.

The article quoted Becker as saying: ``It happens when I spend a lot of time in Germany and appear on television or there are a lot of press reports about me...Suddenly the lunatics come out of their holes and send threatening letters and so on. I ask myself if it's worth it, to live in fear all the time.''

Scientology, based on the teachings of the late U.S. science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, asks members to take personality tests. They are then offered courses and literature to help them to realize what the group believes is their full potential.

Germany takes a particularly hard line on Scientology, which it views purely as a business exploiting the insecurities of its members to make big profits.

Scientology spokesman Georg Stoffel said it had used the reference to Becker because it wanted to draw attention to examples of alleged discrimination in Germany -- both against its own members and other people.

``We campaign for the rights of all minorities,'' he said. ``This was just one example.''

Becker's lawyers said they hoped their letter to Scientology would have a positive outcome. ``We would note now, however, that we reserve the right to take the necessary legal steps if this case is repeated,'' they said.

Stoffel said he had not yet been informed about the letter and could not speculate whether Scientology would cooperate with Becker's request.