By Layli Foroudi and Juliette Jabkhiro
PARIS (Reuters) – The first time French police told a Chechen fugitive he was banned from leaving the northeastern city of Strasbourg and must check in with them every day, he didn't think it was necessary to challenge the order.
France was in the midst of a major security operation for the Summer Olympics, he explained, and he didn't think the authorities would listen to someone identified as a potential threat for collaborating with people identified as 'Jihadists.'
But when the Interior Ministry extended the order in late August to help protect a popular Christmas ad that was the target of a deadly attack in 2018, the runner, known to his friends as Khaled, appealed to the city's administrative court.
The panel of judges concluded the measures were “disproportionate”, speaking in the decision of Oct. 3 seen by Reuters has no criminal record and was not under investigation for any crime.
While they maintained the ban on going to the Strasbourg Christmas market, they proposed other measures. But the ruling came too late for the 20-year-old to enroll in college where he was to begin a cybersecurity course in September, according to testimony filed by his attorney.
“I lost my place. This year is over,” Khaled told Reuters, speaking on the condition that he be identified by a pseudonym, because he fears that his desire for education and work will be disrupted if it is known that he is being monitored by the police. .
Friday's deadly car attack at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg has prompted renewed scrutiny in many European countries about security measures at the annual markets, which draw huge crowds.
But the French interior ministry's extensive use under a 2017 anti-terrorism law to strictly restrict the movement of people deemed a serious security threat has already drawn criticism from some lawyers and human rights activists ahead of the attack.
At least 547 such orders have been issued to people at the Paris Olympics, according to a parliamentary report published on December 11, although some, like Khaled, have not faced criminal charges.
Now, some lawyers and activists are concerned that the widespread use of these orders, known as “individual measures of administrative control and surveillance” or by the French acronym MICAS, may become common in other large public events.
The interior minister, who is in charge of the police, and the administration of the Bas-Rhin region, which includes Strasbourg, did not respond to questions about those targeted 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 had no terrorism-related convictions, although one person had previously been banned from advertising. Reuters could not immediately locate the details of the other two.
In the first five years after the anti-terror law came into force on November 1, 2017, the number of MICAS orders issued for any reason in Bas-Rhin did not exceed seven in any 12 months, according to figures provided by the interior ministry to parliament.
Courts across the country have canceled or suspended at least 57 of this year's Olympic and Christmas advertising-related orders, according to a December parliamentary report and a Reuters review of appeals filed at the Strasbourg court.
“The Olympics was a free MICAS for everything, and now I'm of the opinion that the interior service is not limited to any event that attracts hundreds of thousands,” said David Poinsignon, a lawyer who represents the four MICAS strikers. for the games, two of them had been added to the Christmas market.
He is particularly concerned about cases involving people who don't have terrorism-related convictions, saying: “It's almost a tool for predicting justice.”
Ben Saul, the UN's special expert on counter-terrorism and human rights, said that France should use MICAS orders immediately, “to deal with the credible threat of terrorism where less invasive methods are not enough.”
“Since they can be enforced without the proper defense of a criminal case, there is a high risk of abuse, harshness or discrimination,” he told Reuters.
The Department of the Interior did not respond. Former Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said in July that these measures are only used against people he describes as “highly dangerous” and likely to carry out attacks.
GENERAL SAFETY RULES
The introduction of MICAS orders was part of a tightening of France's security laws over the past decade as President Emmanuel Macron's government responded to deadly attacks and a growing political threat from afar.
Until now, the measures were mainly used to monitor people after prison sentences.
Reuters was unable to find 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 internal service report, submitted to parliament in 2023 and confirmed by two sources.
An intelligence source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss security issues, said in November that the MICAS command had proven to be effective during the Olympics, and that authorities would take a similar risk-free approach to targeting Christmas markets.
A tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, many towns host festive markets, featuring stalls offering gifts, decorations and treats such as pretzels and mulled wine.
This one in Strasbourg is the oldest and largest in France, attracting around 3 million visitors last year.
In 2018, a gunman opened fire there, killing five people and injuring 11 others. The attacker was on the list of security guards and had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State insurgent group.
The suspect in the Magdeburg attack, which killed five people and injured scores, is a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany for nearly two decades.
The purpose remains unclear. Investigators are looking into the suspect's criticism of the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany, among other things. He also has a history of anti-Islamic speech and has expressed support on social media platform X for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) group.
RISING APPEALS
As the French authorities have increased their use of MICAS orders, they have faced successful court challenges.
Since November, judges across the country have canceled or suspended 50 Olympic-related MICAS orders, about 9%, according to a parliamentary report. That was “due to insufficient evidence of a threat” in the intelligence reports used to justify the measures, it said.
There have been at least seven successful appeals against the measures imposed on the Christmas market, according to lawyers and records from the Strasbourg court.
In the first five years after the introduction of MICAS orders, 13 out of 1,203 orders, 1%, were successfully appealed, according to the 2023 internal service report.
Nicolas Klausser, a legal researcher from France's National Center for Scientific Research who studies MICAS cases, said the increase may be partly a product of the growing number of appeals, but the profile of the increase in those targeted may be an important factor.
They include people who may know someone with a terrorism-related conviction, or who made statements about Israel's war on Gaza that authorities described as “peaceful terrorism”, but who have no criminal records themselves, Klausser said.
In Khaled's case, intelligence reports reviewed by Reuters said he spent time with a person convicted of being associated with a terrorist organization and another convicted of “terrorist terrorism”.
Khaled said these are people he knew from the place he grew up or from the gym he used to stay at, but he wasn't close to either of them.
The reports also allege ties with other people described as “pro-Jihadist”. Khaled said that these are also people who are familiar with the neighborhood. The three had been friends for some time, but never discussed violent extremism.
In one incident, Khaled is said to have told a friend that “the dirty trick is being fixed, and he's going to be really happy”. The conversation took place on the eve of the 2020 killing of a French high school teacher who showed his students pictures of the Prophet Mohammad during a free speech class, according to intelligence reports.
Khaled denies saying that. The conversation was about the wedding, he told Reuters, not the killing of Samuel Paty.
His lawyer, Lucie Simon, has dismissed the claims as “nonsense,” saying no evidence has been provided in the intelligence reports, and no charges have been brought against his client for murder.
The Department of the Interior did not respond. Its representatives have said at hearings in other cases that the details in the intelligence articles are not clear in order 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 Chechen teenager.
“It's society that's going to pay,” he recalled thinking.
On 6 Dec, the Interior Ministry extended its MICAS order for a third time. He appealed, and the court informed his lawyer on Tuesday that it had canceled the order.