PARIS: French judges fined the Church of Scientology almost a million dollars yesterday for defrauding vulnerable followers. Scientology's Celebrity Centre and its bookshop in Paris, the two branches of its French operations, were ordered to pay 600,000 euros (BD339,282) in fines for preying financially on its followers in the 1990s. Alain Rosenberg, the French leader of the movement was fined 30,000 euros (BD16,751) on the same charge. France regards Scientology as a cult, not a religion.