The regional daily La Montagne reported that the mayor of the city, Pierre Mathonier, is furious because of this decision, and expressed his anger in a letter to the Minister of the Interior, dated February 19.
Mathonier blamed the Minister for not having warned him: indeed, the mayor was not consulted by Christophe Castaner. He only received a phone call from the prefect of Cantal in the middle of last week.
“Faced with a decision of such importance and on a subject as sensitive as terrorism, it seems to me that the mayor of the municipality should have been consulted,” says the elected official.
“Faced with the fait accompli and without any prior information, I must manage an understandable anxiety from the Aurillacois population. This situation, where I can not bring any element to the inhabitants as to the context and the decisions which prevailed at his arrival, is unacceptable and very uncomfortable,” he continued.
The Mayor also reminded the Minister of the Interior that “the city of Aurillac has taken and still takes responsibility for welcoming and protecting many migrants trying to escape war or death. The municipality strives to ensure a dignified and adapted welcome.
Mathonier believes that Castaner should have taken his responsibilities, informing him, as much as possible, of the house arrest of such a dangerous individual. Especially because the arrival of an ex-jihadist raises anxiety in Aurillac.
The convict, Kamel Daoudi will have to announce himself twice a day at the police station of the city, but will enjoy freedom of movement.
Daoudi is a French-Algerian convicted for plotting to blow up a US embassy in Paris in June 2001. He was later deported from London by the UK Border Agency.
The terrorist pleaded guilty in a French court after his deportation and was sentenced to nine years in jail. He has been consequently stripped of French citizenship and when the French government tried to deport him to Algeria, it was refused by the European Court of Human Rights.