Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin says that the main suspect in the Arras terrorist attack could not be deported but several political figures from the left, right and far right say the opposite.
After the attack which cost the life of literature professor Dominique Bernard in Arras on Friday October 13, the debates quickly focused on the profile of the main suspect. Mohammed M., Chechen, originally from Russia, Fiché S, actively monitored since July, was in an irregular situation in France. Could he be expelled?
Gérald Darmanin against his political opponents
Faced with accusations of laxity, the Minister of the Interior affirmed, the day after the attack, that he “could not, whatever happened, have been expelled”. In a press conference, Gérald Darmanin assured that “the law of the Republic prevents the Minister of the Interior from expelling any foreign citizen who arrived before the age of 13 on the national territory”. He repeated it Monday October 16 on Cnews.
Knife attack in Arras: “To my knowledge, there was no failure by the intelligence services”, indicates Gérald Darmanin pic.twitter.com/E5n2bXfSsW
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) October 14, 2023
But several political figures say the opposite, like the president of the National Rally Jordan Bardella on Monday on France Inter. “From the moment you arrived on French soil, even if you arrived before the age of 13, if you endanger state security, if you have a criminal record as long as your arm and that you threaten national cohesion, you can be expelled”he insisted.
The president of Les Républicains de la Hauts-de-France region Xavier Bertrand said the same thing, in substance, in the 8:30 am of franceinfo on Monday, as did the former president of the Socialist Republic François Hollande at around the same time on RTL, and like Marion Maréchal, the Reconquest candidate in the European elections, on X. So, who is telling the truth?
No, the law did not prevent the expulsion of the attacker from Arras
Franceinfo contacted several jurists and lawyers to find out if, from the point of view of the law, the assailant of the terrorist attack in Arras could be expelled and they responded, unanimously, that yes, he could be, unlike according to Gérald Darmanin. The attacker of Arras “could be absolutely expelled”, even if he arrived at five years in France, even if he had not already been convicted, even if he did not have a criminal record, explained Serge Slama, professor of public law at the university Grenoble-Alpes, at franceinfo. Mohammed M. certainly could not have been subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF) because he arrived in France too young but he could well have been expelled via another procedure.
The migrant law specialist invokes article 631-3 of the Code of entry and stay of foreigners and the right to asylum, more commonly known as Ceseda. This article lists the foreigners who are the most protected by law against expulsions and those who arrived in France before the age of 13 appear in this list. However, the article states that even foreigners most protected by law can be expelled “in the event of behavior likely to harm the fundamental interests of the State, or linked to activities of a terrorist nature, or constituting acts of explicit and deliberate provocation to discrimination, hatred or violence against a person “determined or a group of people”.
From the point of view of the law, the attacker from Arras, who arrived in France at the age of five, could therefore be expelled by a classic prefectural or ministerial expulsion order, or even by an emergency expulsion order. absolute, under certain conditions.
But was the law applicable?
However, theory must be compared to practice. Mohammed M. had only been under surveillance since July and recently Fiché S, which left little time for the authorities to consider a possible expulsion even if there was enough time for an absolute emergency expulsion procedure. A procedure usually reserved for “a handful of people with very dangerous profiles”, according to Serge Slama, which therefore depends on the information available to the authorities. And that’s the heart of the matter: did they have enough information to know that the suspect was going to act? The Minister of the Interior assured that no, Tuesday October 17 on RTL.
It should be noted that the law does not clearly define what the “behavior likely to harm the fundamental interests of the State, or linked to activities of a terrorist nature”. In other words: were his family ties with a brother convicted of preparing an attack enough to expel him? Or the reports made by Mohammed M.’s teachers? This is an administrative law debate that did not take place.
But Amine Elbahi, a lawyer who teaches law at the University of Lille and is committed against the rise of Islamism in Roubaix, believes that the reasons which led to the suspect being registered could be sufficient to at least try to arrest him. expel. He recalls that Imam Hassan Iquouissen was expelled under this article 631-3 of Ceseda due solely to discriminatory and hateful remarks that he had made. A lawyer specializing in migrant law, contacted by franceinfo, thinks the same thing.
The other reality principle that applies in this specific case concerns the reception conditions in the country of origin. Mohammed M. comes from Russia and it has been difficult to deport to this country since the start of the war in Ukraine.