FRANCE/FILE: French parliament to debate bill aimed at tightening surveillance of jihadi volunteers

Record ID: 352031

  • Title: FRANCE/FILE: French parliament to debate bill aimed at tightening surveillance of jihadi volunteers
  • Date: 15th September 2014
  • Summary: PARIS, FRANCE (SEPTEMBER 12, 2014) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT, WHO HAS PROPOSED AN ANTI-TERROR BILL, SEBASTIEN PIETRASANTA, SAYING: "Today we have between 950 and 1000 French citizens who have gone, will go or have already returned from Syria. So this is an important phenomenon in terms of its extent and the diversity of the individuals inv
  • Embargoed: 30th September 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: France
  • Country: France
  • Topics: Conflict,International Relations,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA3WW0CU8Y24F3UHMR6JLT87GNY
  • Story Text: An estimated 1000 volunteers who have left from France -- the top Western source of jihadist volunteers -- are presently in or have returned from Syria, Socialist lawmaker Sebastien Pietrasanta told Reuters on Friday (September 12), adding that France has seen a sharp rise this year in citizens going to join Islamic militants in Syria and now Iraq.
    Pietrasanta is in charge of an anti-terror bill to be debated in parliament on Monday (September 15) that tightens surveillance of potential jihadi volunteers and restricts the movements of returned fighters, who could be stripped of passport and identity papers.
    The draft law also foresees new legal tools that allow judges to prosecute individuals for plotting alone to carry out attacks, as current French legislation focuses on conspiracies.
    In July 2013, a young French man coming from a middle-class background and converted to Islam, had made himself known by posting a propaganda video on a social media website, calling for holy war.
    Then in 2014, French national Mehdi Nemmouche -- arrested on charges of shooting dead four people in May at the Jewish Museum in Brussels -- was suspected to have spent most of last year in Syria, fighting with Islamist rebels.
    On Thursday, a man suspected of being one of the main recruiters of French jihadists for Islamic State was placed in the hands of judicial authorities in Paris.
    Among the potential jihadists, around 100 have returned and are currently in the country, some in jail, others under surveillance, Pietrasanta said, adding authorities had material evidence showing that a number of them could potentially go ahead and commit attacks on French soil.
    "Today we have between 950 and 1000 French citizens who have gone, will go or have already returned from Syria. So this is an important phenomenon in terms of its extent and the diversity of the individuals involved. That is, all 75 departments have people with ties to Syria," Socialist lawmaker Sebastien Pietrasanta said.
    France has long been a target for Islamist militants because of its record as a colonial power in North Africa and problems integrating its large Muslim minority.
    It has nonetheless had broad success at averting attacks due to its security apparatus and some of Europe's toughest anti-terrorism laws.
    However, the ease of communication through social media and the growing turmoil in the Middle East have created new pressures, and the government has been criticised for not stopping French nationals as young as 14 from heading to Syria.
    Families of French youths who have joined Islamist rebel groups gathered last spring and urged the government to act.
    The objective of this bill is to increase the number of hurdles to discourage those who want to go.
    "We will never be able to stop an extremely radicalised and determined militant from leaving and reaching Syria. However, we can prevent minors -- 14, 15, 16 year-olds from leaving, as we saw with the young girls in August, because it's complicated to cross Europe and reach Syria without a passport and identity card. That's the idea - to impede this movement and to put an end to the influx of youths in Syria," Pietrasanta said.
    France has the biggest Muslim population in Europe and many Muslims feel they are already being stigmatised.
    They consider the bill useless and fear people may confuse young Muslims with those who are radicalized.
    During prayers at Paris' Grand Mosque, worshippers said there were calls for solidarity with Christians living in Iraq, who have been a target by Islamist insurgents.
    Najib Zarkan, a Syrian who lives in France, believes laws will not stop those who want to go abroad to fight alongside Islamist militants, and that they have gone astray from Islam's values.
    "We will never be able to stop these people from going there and fighting. These people who have left to fight there have lost their path, honestly, they have lost their way to fight there. These people were manipulated because when they arrive they are told: 'these people who don't know God, go and kill them, go and cut their heads off," he said.
    For Abderrahmane Dahmane, a scholar and member of the Paris Mosque, French jihadists are only a minority.
    "You have (drug) dealers, you have robbers, well you have terrorists too but they are a minority. We are told that in our community there are 300 jihadists. Eight million Muslims live in France in peace. What do 300 or 200 people represent? And if they managed to count them then they should know who they are," he said.
    On Monday, a security conference in Paris gathered foreign ministers from the main European states, the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Iraq's neighbours and Gulf Arab states Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE, for discussions on political, security and humanitarian aspects of tackling Islamic State.
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