the Ministry of Justice recognizes the existence of a file of demonstrators in Lille

Representatives of the Ministry of Justice acknowledged Monday, May 15, before the administrative court, the existence of a nominative file in Lille of people placed in police custody during the mobilization on pensions, a simple “management tool” according to them.

The court was examining two interim applications filed by the Association for the Defense of Constitutional Liberties (Adelico) and the Syndicate of Lawyers of France, as well as by the League of Human Rights (LDH) after an article by Mediapart (article reserved for subscribers) denouncing such filing. The judge is due to render his decision on its legality on Thursday.

“Tool for local management”

It is an Excel spreadsheet, called “Monitoring of criminal proceedings – pension reform movement” detailing the surnames, first names, dates of birth of people placed in police custody during the demonstrations, and the criminal consequences given. According to the ministry, this file is authorized by the decree governing the Cassiopée database, which brings together in secure software the data of defendants, victims or witnesses of legal proceedings over the past ten years.

The spreadsheet examined “simply gathers the procedures linked to the same event, which Cassiopée does not allow to do in real time”and does not contain “no further information” than those authorized in this base, detailed at the hearing a representative of the ministry.

Whether “the chancellery did not give this instruction”it was a “tool for local management”, he assured. That “allows the control of a particular event” with a strong “volume of police custody”, explained another representative, referring to the existence of other files of this type in other cities. The prosecutor of Lille and the public prosecutor of Douai, also targeted by the appeals, were neither present nor represented at the hearing.