E/CN.4/1990/46 page 43 79. On 6 June 1989 the Permanent Representative of Spain transmitted the Spanish authorities' reply to the Special Rapporteur. This reply stated the following: "With reference to your note Ref. G/SO 214 (563) of 7 April 1989, enclosing the communication of the Special Rapporteur dealing with the question of religious intolerance, Mr. Angelo Vidal d'Almeida Ribeiro, transmitting the complaint made against the authorities of my country by the Association of Scientologists International concerning alleged violations of the principle of religious freedom in Spain, I have the honour to transmit to you, for the attention of the Special Rapporteur, my Government's comments on this case (communication from the Human Rights Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and from the Technical General Secretariat of the Ministry of the Interior). "In reply to the Directorate-General's telex, dated 7 February 1989, concerning the complaint submitted to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights by the Reverend Haber Jentzsch and repeated by a Swiss Member of Parliament, Mr. Bronnimann, concerning the alleged detention of 70 members of the Church of Scientology, on 29 November last, I have the honour to inform you that, according to information received from the Directorate General of Police, the acts in question are related to the so-called 'Operacion Rocio1 carried out by police officials following the investigations made by the Judicial Police Group attached to the Madrid Courts, on the order of Examining Magistrate No. 21 of Madrid, who is in charge of the affair and has started preliminary proceedings under case No. 2663/84, as reasonable evidence exists of alleged offences of unlawful association, undue influences, offences against security and freedom in employment, offences against public safety, fraud, forgery, tax and currency offences. "In view of the action taken by the Examining Magistrate and the subordinate position of the Judicial Police Group, which carried out the investigation and initiated the proceedings, in accordance with the provisions of Royal Decree No. 769/1987 of 19 June on the regulation of the Judicial Police and in view of the fact that the matter is sub judice. it is thought neither proper nor desirable to give any kind of information until such time as a judicial decision is given. "The Government of Spain wishes to draw attention to the following considerations in connection with the complaint made against Spain by members of the Association of Scientologists International. "1. In the first place, the Spanish Government wishes to underline the inconsistency between the nature of the complaint, the charges made in it, and the channel through which this complaint has been made to the Commission on Human Rights, namely, the Special Rapporteur on questions of religious intolerance. This inconsistency is due to an obvious factor: it is only the members of the Association of Scientologists International themselves who say it is a religious organization; their assertion is not endorsed by any other body outside the Association. The following facts are significant in that respect:

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