France: Anti-terror laws pave way for arbitrary justice
01 May 1999
A report, by lawyers Michael McColgan and Alessandro Attanasio for the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH), into French anti-terrorist laws has concluded that "France is in violation of a substantial number of its obligations under the European Convention of Human Rights." Their report cautions that these violations are "paving the way for arbitrary justice", and calls for the repeal of existing anti-terrorist legislation. The investigation cites the mass trial of 138 Algerian defendants accused of participation in terrorism (the "Chalabi network" trial), as exemplifying many of the concerns in the report.
The report looks at (chapter IV) French anti-terrorism laws and their practical application by reference to the European Convention for the protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950). It found that the:
"system that prevails in the fight against terrorism is a short sighted system, more designed to impress public opinion than to bring those who have committed acts of terrorism to justice."
They found violations both in the substance of the legislation and the ways it is used which the authors consider "to be a matter of serious concern...with grave, often irreparable damage on their victims.
In addition the report contains a summary of the situation in Corsica and the Basque territories where the French authorities impose draconian anti-terrorist measures rather than contemplate a political solution to the problem, (chapter V). It examines in detail the case of Ramazan Alpaslan, a 28-year old Kurdish political refugee who hanged himself after having four applications for bail refused "on the hope that the continued and lengthy detention...would...exert pressure...to obtain further "evidence"." (chapter VI). Another case examined is that of Medhi Ghomri, a young Algerian sentenced to seven years imprisonment under the association de malfaiteurs (conspiracy) law, criticised elsewhere in the report (chapter VII). Chapter VIII covers the rafle preventive (preventative round-up) of 80 people suspected of belonging to the "Islamast Movement" in May 1998, which is condemned as a "blatant demonstration of the dangers inherent in the [French] anti-terrorist laws..." Chapter X covers the role of defence lawyers and legal aid.
The report highlights the "Chalabi network" mass trial (named after one of the defendants, Mohammed Chalabi) that followed a series of police raids in 1994-95 which resulted in the arrest of over 170 Algerians. They were accused of conspiracy and participation in the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) and the Armed Islamic Group (GIA). Preliminary charges were dropped against 34 people (who spent an average of two months in prison). The mass trial of the remaining 138, beginning in late 1998, took place in a special terrorist court (an inaccessible converted gymnasium protected by 300 gendarmes outside of Paris). The defendants spent an average of 14 months in custody, while 14 of them were detained for almost four years. In many cases the sentences that they faced would have been served while awaiting trial.
The mass trial artificially established connections between defendants by linking them in a single action, and was broadly denounced. It was dismissed by the French Judges Union as "totally foreign to the idea of trying cases before a court in a manner both democratic and suited to the individual." Defence appeals for the trial to be broken up into separate procedures were dismissed. Other defence lawyers complained about the lack of disclosure of 50,000 pages of evidence (lawyers were told that they would have to pay 150,000 francs for a copy) and the bias shown by examining judges in their interrogations which the FIDH report describes as: "inquisition in the narrow and medieval sense of the term". One defence lawyer condemned the whole affair as a show trial to show support for Algeria's military backed regime.
On 22 January the special court found 51 o