Gerard Collomb, French Interior Minister (Twitter)
France votes bill allowing permanent state of emergency
On Wednesday a tough new anti-terrorism bill was adopted in the French parliament, France24 reported. It gives the authorities, headed by French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, expanded powers, including the search of homes, restricting movement and closing places of worship.
Published: October 20, 2017, 9:35 am
It will replace the soon-to-expire two-year state of emergency introduced after the November 2015 Paris attacks, that had been extended six times.
After the lower house of parliament approved the bill last week, the Senate backed it on Wednesday. The new provisions are due to take effect after the state of emergency expires on the 1 November.
Suspected jihadist sympathisers, while not directly accused of a any crime, may be subjected to house arrest under the state of emergency laws, and such individuals may be confined to his or her home.
Contained in the bill are also “individual surveillance measures” for up to a year, which would limit certain suspects to keep within the boundaries of their town or city. An electronic bracelet would be required for further travel.
They have only 48 hours to appeal such restrictions to a judge and must report to the police once a day.
For home searches, a local police chief may obtain a search warrant from a judge to investigate terror links. A home owner who receives a “visit” from police, may be held for four hours, during which documents, data and objects may be seized.
The closure of mosques, churches or other places of worship for six months in France can be ordered by top government official in each of France’s regions. If preachers are found to have incited attacks or glorified terrorism, investigators will no longer be required to provide proof of radical preaching or writings. The venue can be closed solely on the basis of problematic “ideas and theories” circulated among devotees.
Non-compliance will carry a three-year prison sentence and a hefty fine of 45,000 euros.
Security zones may be set up by authorities if they deem rallies or concerts vulnerable to attack. Individuals entering the area will be subjected to searches by the police or private security guards.
The police will be given expanded powers to carry out stop-and-search operations in border areas. Human rights groups have claimed that the bill will be used mainly against migrants and Muslims, but in the visa-free Schengen area, French authorities already carry spot identity checks in border areas as well as at international airports, ports and train stations.
Areas around train stations, as well as areas around international ports and airports for up to 10 kilometres, will now be included thanks to the new bill.
Civil servants suspected of terrorist sympathies working in France’s security or defence could eventually face dismissal from public service and soldiers may be discharged on similar grounds. French intelligence agencies will also be able continue to use algorithms to tap into phone and email communications to try to detect suspicious behaviour.
UN human rights experts have warned that France must comply with “its international human rights obligations,” claiming the bill would “incorporate into ordinary law several restrictions on civil liberties currently in place under France’s state of emergency”.
RT accused the French police of having “a serious problem with institutional racism and brutality against the Arab-Muslim community” going back to the Paris massacre of 1961, when dozens, and perhaps hundreds, of Algerians were killed in a police crackdown on the protest against the Algerian War on the River Seine.
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One comment
OR France could expel its blacks and browns, decide they’ve had enough, that France is for the French, and they’re not going to virtue signal all their civil liberties away.
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