Agrandissement : Illustration 1
Article source: "De l’état d’urgence au projet de réforme de la procédure pénale : quand l’exception devient la règle", Chloé Rochereuil, France 24, 08/02/2016.
Amnesty International have spoken of ‘Upturned Lives’. Karim has been under house arrest since 15 November, and Amar’s home has been searched. Both men were interviewed for an Amnesty report on the ‘Disproportionate Impact of France’s State of Emergency’, which was published on Thursday 4 February.
Ombudsman Jacques Toubon, like the NGO, has denounced the government for taking France into an ‘era of suspects’* with the constitutional adoption of the state of emergency. The constitutional revision bill was passed by the French National Assembly on Friday 5 February. It prolongs the present state of emergency, and also makes it easier in the future to declare a state of emergency for longer periods of time.
But the current measures may have more important consequences on another piece of legislation: the penal reform bill, via which some of the emergency security provisions will pass into common law.
France 24 has made an inventory of the key measures that might remain in force once the state of emergency is lifted.
House Arrests
The criminal procedure bill aims to make this provision permanent by allowing the authorities to place individuals under house arrest for up to a month if they are suspected of having gone abroad in order to take part in terrorist activities. French people coming back from Syria or Iraq who could potentially ‘be a threat to public safety when returning to French territory’ are targeted by this bill. It is like probation, without a judge.
Property Searches at Night
The bill allows property searches at night to be directly sanctioned by the préfet or the public prosecutor – which is to say a high-ranking civil servant or an attorney answering only to the justice ministry – as part of a “normal” procedure, where they previously had to be authorised by a judge.
Internet Surveillance
While the 2015 state of emergency law avoided imposing the press and broadcasting controls found in the 1955 law, the measure was replaced by an option allowing the interior ministry to block websites ‘advocating terrorism or inciting terrorist acts’.
Details are given in the bill about this measure, which once again is to be made permanent. Individuals consulting websites ‘directly inciting terrorist attacks’, or advocating terrorism, are to be sentenced to 2 years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros. The law provides for exceptions, but only for journalists, researchers, lawyers and investigators. The average curious internet user will have to be wary.
If passed, the bill will allow public prosecutors to authorise their staff to use ‘IMSI-catchers’, a piece of technology used to intercept mobile phone communications within a certain perimeter, without prior authorisation from a judge.
Increased Police Powers
The police will be authorised to search belongings and vehicles upon request by the préfet and to perform identity checks even if they don’t suspect any offence has been committed. The police will also have the right to hold people in custody, even those under 18, for four hours without access to a lawyer, ‘when there are serious reasons to think that their behaviour is linked to terrorist activities’. It should be noted that the word ‘terrorism’ is not defined by the bill.
Policemen and soldiers are to be granted a ‘freedom from criminal responsibility’ even ‘when it is not a case of self-defence’, if the use of their weapons is ‘made absolutely necessary in order to incapacitate an individual who has just committed one or several voluntary manslaughters, and whom they have good reason to think will repeat such voluntary manslaughters within a short period of time’.
The French government wants to make a rule out of the exception with the constitutionalisation of the state of emergency and the penal reform. The Amnesty International report is about Karim, Amar and hundreds of other people whose lives have been ‘upturned’ by the emergency security measures, but this could soon become a reality for millions of French people.
The bill will likely be amended during parliamentary debate. In any event, French law itself seems to be on the brink of getting upturned.
Translated by Rachel Lagrou and Alexandre Margat
Editing by Sam Trainor
Notes
* Toubon's choice of words has foreboding historical resonance, being a possible reference to the Terreur. See the note on the article about the French Ombudsman: "French 'Defender of Rights' Calls for a Respectful State of Emergency" (ed.).