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German Court Rules That Ban On Rev. Moon's Entry Is Illegal
Christopher Davies
May 06, 2007
Press Release on behalf of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, Dutch chapter.
German court rules that ban on Rev. Moon's entry is illegal
Amsterdam, May 6, 2007 - On Friday, May 4, the superior administrative tribunal of Rhineland Palatinate state (Oberverwaltungsgericht Rheinland-Pfalz), which has oversight over the German border police command, ruled that the German government's 1995 ban (still in force today) on the Reverend Dr. Sun Myung Moon and his wife entering Germany was illegal, in pursuance of a ruling by the Bundesverfassungsgericht (Federal Constitutional Court) in February, that found the government's actions to be unconstitutional.
The German visa ban had stopped Rev. Moon and his wife from entering not only Germany, but most of the countries that are part to the Schengen agreement, even though they are not bound by it.
This ruling does not automatically allow entry to Rev. Moon and his wife, the court did not order the government to remove the ban, but that is surely only a matter of time; and Germany removing their Schengen listing will then open the borders of the other Schengen countries.
Drs. Wim Koetsier, President of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (part of the Unification Movement) in the Netherlands, welcomed the ruling. However, he commented that when it takes 12 years of legal procedures to stop the violation of the freedom of religion and expressing of opinion, it raises questions about the functioning of the state of law in Germany and even in Europe. For it was remarkable with how much zeal most of the Schengen countries, even The Netherlands recently, blindly followed this obvious injustice by the German authorities, stating that they had to follow the Schengen treaty ("law is law") and quite often got the courts on their side.
In all these cases, maintaining public safety was considered to be more important than freedom of religion or expression of opinion (a common viewpoint in dictatorships, but not to be expected in modern Europe), even though it was well known that Dr. Moon had never actually disturbed public safety. On the contrary, those who really investigated the Unification Movement, valued Dr. Moon's efforts for their contribution to the attainment of world peace.
European countries still had much to learn about good governance: they liked to lecture other countries about human rights, but appeals against the German government’s ruling had been resisted by the government for 12 years; and still there was no order from the court and the government would probably try and appeal the decision, even though they had tried to block appeals against their ruling, saying that it was not a matter of "general importance".
Indeed, continued Mr. Koetsier, in finding that the government was acting illegally, one might have expected an award of damages or at least a compensation of the costs of the legal procedures, but, as yet, there had been no mention. If individuals were pronounced to have acted illegally, they were in trouble. Maybe there should be an investigation into the legal system in some European countries. It was shameful that it should take 12 years to come to this decision, but still have to push the government to take action.
In the Netherlands, the Immigration Service (IND) seemed to have consciously hindered the attempts to challenge its rulings, deliberately using delaying tactics which had resulted in huge legal costs, money that the Family Federation could ill afford to spend and that might have been used for far better purposes.
The Union of Utecht , proclaiming religious freedom and tolerance, was basic to the very existence of The Netherlands; Willem van Oranje had led De Opstand, the revolt, against Spain in defence of those same principles, not for patriotic or nationalist reasons.
The Dutch liked to think that they were ahead of the Belgians in promoting human rights, but quite recently a Belgian court had ordered that Rev. Moon should be allowed entry and that his wife should be considered not to be listed at all.
In the meantime, it was not intended to sit back and see how the German and, then, Dutch governments would respond to this latest ruling, but to continue the legal challenge, if necessary as far as the European Court of Justice, but at the same time making governments aware that they should act in the spirit, not in the letter of the law. Like the Bible says: the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.
To see the official Press Release Nr. 18/2007-05-04 Upper Administrative Court Decision click here.