A radical measure to fight against the radicalized. Following the terrorist attack on the Bir Hakeim bridge in Paris, political leaders call for the systematic use of administrative security detention, a system of socio-medical-judicial control put in place once the sentence pronounced by the judicial authority has been purified. For people convicted of terrorist acts or linked to a planned violent action, it has existed since the law of July 31, 2021.
“Secure detention is possible in the area of terrorism, but these provisions, which came into force after the conviction and release of the individual affected by this weekend’s attack, were not applicable to him,” observes Jean-Philippe Derosier, professor of public law.
Arrested in 2016, Armand R., the radical Islamist who attacked three people with a knife and a hammer, killing one, was released from prison in 2020 after being sentenced to five years in prison for a planned attack on the neighborhood business office of La Defense. After his release, he was under Micas, that is, administrative police measures, close to judicial control, which can force the person to appear at a police station, make known his place of residence or prohibit him from appearing at certain places. places.
File S, its post-prison monitoring was reinforced in particular because the justice system realized that in March 2020, Armand R. maintained digital exchanges with another radicalized person, in this case Abdoullakh Anzorov, who will murder in October of the same year Samuel Paty. . Audited by investigators, he then presented himself as an anti-Islamist. However, the courts had obtained stricter precautionary measures following a new psychiatric evaluation. Last April, experts indicated that he did not present “any danger.”
Systematic detention at the end of the sentence
If the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, deplores a “psychiatric failure”, the opposition believes that the Government must be held accountable, while 340 people convicted of radicalization or radicalized in prison have been released since 2018. “Secure detention for matters related to Islamic terrorism must be systematic,” insists Jordan Bardella, president of the National Rally, the day after the attack on the Bir Hakeim bridge.
“We have been asking for this security detention for a long time (…) yes, we must detain people at the end of their sentence who have been convicted of terrorism or advocacy of terrorism and whose non-dangerousness has not been perfectly established. ” BFMTV is also appreciated by Othman Nasrou, vice president of the Ile-de-France region, first deputy general secretary of Les Républicains.
Specifically, secure detention is the internment, for a renewable year, of a person at the end of their sentence in a medical-social-judicial center, if it is considered that there is still a risk of recidivism. Created in 2008, this measure was introduced for criminals sentenced to at least 15 years in prison. We speak then of murder, assassination, torture or even an act of barbarism. To decide, the criminal court that convicted the person must have foreseen this possibility in its sentence.
Non-retroactive law
In terms of terrorism, the implementation of this measure was planned in 2020 with the law “that establishes security measures against the perpetrators of terrorist crimes at the end of their sentence”, to avoid abrupt releases. The security measure for detained former terrorists, voted by the Senate and the National Assembly, was censured by the Constitutional Council, since the Wise Men considered that the law, as it was written, violated the rights and freedoms of the people.
In 2021, within the framework of the law on the prevention of acts of terrorism and intelligence defended by the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, the measure is resumed. Adopted in July, it provides that when a person is sentenced to at least five years in prison (three years in the case of recidivism) for terrorism or advocacy of terrorism, and “that said person presents a particular danger characterized by a high probability, high rate of recidivism and persistent adherence to an ideology (…)”, a judicial measure of security detention may be issued by the court executing the sentence. Also in this case the control can be carried out in a suitable reception establishment.
However, there is nothing automatic, this measure is decided after a contradictory debate before a disciplinary commission. This monitoring may be carried out for a period of five years until the departure of the interested party. But like any law adopted in France, this is not retroactive and therefore does not affect people convicted before July 31, 2021.
Source: BFM TV
