France: Immigration and citizenship
01 January 1991
France: Immigration and citizenship
artdoc April=1995
The battle between Pasqua and the judiciary
Judges overturn Pasqua on deportation of Algerian demonstrators
A judge's order to revoke a decision made by the Interior
Minister to deport two young Algerians accused of throwing stones
at a demonstration in Lyons against the cuts in young people's
wages, has led Pasqua to challenge the independence of the
judiciary. In a letter to the Minister of Justice, Pasqua accused
certain unnamed magistrates of breaking the law, particularly the
law of 24 August 1993 which forbids the release of illegal
immigrants put into administrative detention.
The facts of the case
The two Algerian youths deported on Pasqua's instructions were
subsequently returned to France to stand trial. Supporters of the
youths and supporters of the FN staged demonstrations outside the
courts. Although the youths received a one-month suspended
sentence and 60 hours community service, several discrepancies
in the police's testimony emerged during the trial. According to
the riot police's own statements, they had no evidence that the
youths had broken windows as previously claimed. Instead, the
police had merely targeted certain demonstrators because of the
identifiable nature of their clothing, and then sent snatch
squads into the crowd to pick them out. One of the youths,
Abdelhakim Youbi had been picked out because he looked like a
squatter.
The attitude of the justice minister
In response to Pasqua's letter, the Minister of Justice replied
that the judiciary was independent and had no power to tell
judges what to do. `The problem of immigration' said Pierre
Méhaignerie `is difficult enough without making the judiciary as
a whole scapegoats for the difficulties encountered by public
authorities'. But further to this, the justice minister seems to
have backed off from open governmental inter-departmental
conflict, merely asking Pasqua not to make any further attacks
on the judiciary in order to appease the feelings of the police.
Response of the judges unions
All the judges' unions have reacted angrily to the assault on
their independence. This was qualified, however, by the right-
wing Association Professionale des Magistrates which attacked the
Minister for Justice for appointing left-wing magistrates opposed
to government policies in the first place.
The largest union, the USM, have attacked Pasqua for his
`unfounded and clumsy' allegations and declared that they do not
take their orders from the Interior Minister and that their
independence is guaranteed under the constitution.
A smaller more left-wing union, the SM believes that Pasqua
deliberately timed his outburst to coincide with a special civil
tribunal which was due to make a decision on one of the two
Algerians Pasqua wants to expel.
Pasqua renews his onslaught
Pasqua renewed his onslaught on the judiciary in both a
television interview and in the National Assembly.
On the `7 sur 7' TV programme, Pasqua spoke of the `wayward
tendencies' of certain judges. Defending himself from the charge
that he had made his attack on the judiciary in a moment of
exasperation, Pasqua said that he would continue to challenge
judges' decisions on immigration and that he was currently
reviewing up to 20 decisions that he was unhappy with. In the
National Assembly, Pasqua defended his decision to deport the two
Algerians, but this time with specific reference to recent events
in the Lyons suburbs. `Urban violence has nothing to do with
difficult living conditions. It is a question of certain people
who like to cause damage, to steal and to pillage for the
pleasure of it... when necessary, I will not hesitate to deport
them.'
New legislation to be introduced in next parliament
Pasqua has announced that he is to introduce a bill in the next
session of parliament to cover immigration loopholes and to deal
with the `waywardness'