France extends measures to watch Olympics in Christmas market By Reuters

By Layli Foroudi and Juliette Jabkhiro

PARIS (Reuters) – (This December 23 story has been corrected to clarify that the interior ministry figures refer to the number of MICAS orders issued, not the individuals affected, in paragraph 9; and the paragraphs 10 and 13 edited to conform)

The first time the French police informed the Chechen refugee that he was forbidden to leave the northeastern city of Strasbourg and had to check in with them every day, he didn’t think it was worth going against the order.

France is in the midst of a massive security operation for the summer Olympic Games, he explained, and he doesn’t think the authorities will listen to someone identified as a potential threat because of the interactions. by people identified as ‘pro-Jihadist.’

But when the Ministry of Interior extended the order in late August to help protect a popular Christmas market that was the target of a deadly attack in 2018, the refugee, known to friends as Khaled, appealed to the municipal administrative court.

A panel of judges concluded the measures were “disproportionate”, saying in an October 3 decision seen by Reuters that he had no criminal record and was not under investigation for any crime.

While they enforced the ban on attending the Christmas market in Strasbourg, they removed other measures. But the decision came too late for the 20-year-old who enrolled at a college where he was to begin a cybersecurity course in September, according to evidence submitted by his lawyer.

“I lost my place. This year has gone to waste,” Khaled told Reuters, speaking on the condition that he be identified by his nickname, because he fears his academic and career aspirations will be derailed if he is found to be being watched. he is in the police. .

Friday’s deadly car crash attack at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg has prompted a fresh review by several European countries of security arrangements for seasonal markets, which attracts many people.

But the French interior ministry’s extensive use of powers introduced under a 2017 anti-terror law to severely limit the movements of individuals deemed a serious security threat has already taken hold. criticisms from some lawyers and human rights activists before the attack.

At least 547 orders have been issued against people for the Paris Olympics, according to a parliamentary report published on December 11, although some, like Khaled, have not yet faced criminal charges. .

Now, some lawyers and activists worry that the wider use of these orders, known as an “individual measure of administrative control and surveillance” or by the French acronym MICAS, could become the norm for in other major public events.

The interior ministry, which oversees the police, and the local authority for the Bas-Rhin region, which includes Strasbourg, did not respond to questions about the targets because of the Christmas market.

Reuters has identified at least 12 cases, based on court documents, interviews with lawyers and one of the people involved. At least 10 have no terrorism-related convictions, although one person was previously banned from the market. Reuters could not immediately determine details for the other two.

In the first five years after the anti-terror law took effect on Nov. 1, 2017, the number of MICAS orders issued for any reason in Bas-Rhin does not exceed seven in any 12-month period, according to figures provided by the interior ministry of the parliament.

The country’s courts have canceled or suspended at least 55 of the Olympics and Christmas market-related orders this year, according to a December parliamentary report and a Reuters review of appeals filed in court in Strasbourg.

“The Olympics is a MICAS free-for-all, and so now I have the impression that the interior ministry is kind of unstoppable for any event that attracts hundreds of thousands,” said David Poinsignon, a lawyer representing four people hit by MICAS orders for games, two of them extended for the Christmas market.

He is particularly concerned about cases involving people without terrorism-related convictions, saying: “It has almost become an instrument of prophetic justice.”

Ben Saul, the UN’s special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, said France should use MICAS orders, “to address a credible threat of terrorism where less is not enough.” troublesome way.”

“Because they can be imposed without the strong fair trial safeguards of a criminal trial, there is a greater risk of abuse, unfairness or discrimination,” he told Reuters.

The interior ministry did not comment. Former Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in July that the measures were only used for people he described as “very dangerous” and could carry out attacks.

BETTER SECURITY LAW

The introduction of the MICAS orders is part of a continued tightening of French security laws over the past decade as President Emmanuel Macron’s government has responded to deadly attacks and a growing political threat from the far right.

Until recently, the measures were used to monitor people after prison sentences.

Reuters could not obtain data for the previous year. But ex-prisoners accounted for 79% of the 136 MICAS orders issued in the year ending October 2022, according to figures from an unpublished interior ministry report, submitted to parliament in 2023 and confirmed by two sources.

An intelligence source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, said in November that MICAS orders had proven effective during the Olympics, and authorities would do the same. a no-risk approach to potential Christmas market targets.

A tradition that dates back to the Middle Ages, many cities host festive markets, with stalls offering gifts, decorations and food such as pretzels and mulled wine.

The one in Strasbourg is the oldest and largest in France, attracting about 3 million visitors last year.

In 2018, a gunman opened fire there, killing five people and injuring 11 others. The killer is on a security watchlist and has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State militant group.

The suspect in the attack in Magdeburg, which killed at least five people and injured, is a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany for almost two decades.

The motive remains unclear. Investigators are looking into the suspect’s criticism of the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany, among others. He also has a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric and has expressed support on the social media platform X for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

ARISING OF APPEALS

As the French authorities expanded their use of MICAS orders, they faced more successful court challenges.

Last November, judges across the country canceled or suspended 50 MICAS orders related to the Olympics, about 9%, according to a parliamentary report. That is “often due to insufficient evidence of a threat” in the intelligence reports used to justify the measures, it said.

There have also been at least five successful appeals against measures issued for the Christmas market, according to records from the Strasbourg court.

In the first five years after MICAS orders were introduced, 13 out of 1,203 orders, 1%, were successfully appealed, according to the Interior 2023 report.

Nicolas Klausser, a legal scholar from France’s National Center for Scientific Research who studies MICAS cases, said the increase may be partly a product of more appeals, but the expansion of profile of targets is probably an important factor.

This includes people who may have known someone with a terrorism-related conviction, or who made statements about Israel’s war on Gaza that the authorities described as an “apology for terrorism”, but they don’t have criminal records themselves, Klausser said.

In Khaled’s case, intelligence reports reviewed by Reuters said he spent time with a man convicted of associating with a group planning a terrorist act and another convicted of “apology for terrorism”.

Khaled said these were people he knew from the neighborhood where he grew up or a gym he frequented, but he wasn’t close to any of them.

The reports also said there was a relationship with other people described as “pro-Jihadist”. Khaled said these were also mostly neighborhood acquaintances. The three were friends for a while, but they did not discuss violent extremism, he said.

At one point, Khaled is said to have told a friend that “a dirty trick was up to him, and frankly he was going to be happy”. The conversation took place on the eve of the 2020 killing of a French secondary teacher who showed his students caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad in a free speech class, according to intelligence reports.

Khaled denied what he said. The conversation was about a wedding, he told Reuters, not the killing of Samuel Paty.

His lawyer Lucie Simon dismissed the allegations as “absurd,” saying no evidence was provided in the intelligence memos, and no charges were brought against her client in connection with the murder.

The interior ministry did not comment. Its representatives have said in hearings for other cases that the details of the intelligence memos were intentionally obscured to protect sources.

Khaled said he was shocked and worried when he learned from a news report that the attack was carried out by a teenager of Chechen origin.