EU lawyers urged to prioritise jihadist cases
PARIS, May 2, (AFP): European countries must prioritise which jihadists to pursue in court if they are to avoid being overwhelmed by the caseload, the EU’s counter-terrorism chief told AFP in an interview.
Gilles de Kerchove, in Paris this week for a meeting of EU counter-terrorism magistrates, said jihadists who had clearly engaged with the most brutal militant groups and risked carrying out violence within Europe must be prosecuted.
But he said authorities must also identify less fanatical members who could be open to deradicalisation.
“There is a considerable number of Europeans among the foreign combattants who have travelled to Iraq and Syria, certainly more than 4,000,” said Kerchove.
“So, whatever happens, we don’t have a choice: surveillance of all of them is beyond the capacity of states.
“Before Syria, we were talking about dozens of people to monitor. Now we’re in the thousands.”
He said there were many cases in which there was little or no evidence against jihadists returning from Syria.
“We are not present in Syria. We don’t collaborate with the Assad regime, so it’s not easy to prove that someone joined the Islamic State group or (al-Qaeda-affiliated) Jabat al-Nusra rather than the Free Syrian Army,” said Kerchove.
“I’ve said it for a long time: it would be a profound error to send everyone that returns from Syria or Iraq to prison, not least because prisons are a major vehicle for radicalisation.”
Difficult
That leaves the difficult task of finding suitable and willing candidates for deradicalisation programmes.
“It’s difficult, especially since many have learned the art of subterfuge. It’s not an exact science but... we must reduce the number of suspects by putting in place systems of rehabilitation or psychological and social assistance programmes for those who do not present an objective risk.”
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced Wednesday that authorities would by the end of the year start taking in volunteers returning from conflict zones who were not the subject of legal action.
“By an individualised approach, and psychological support... these young people should find their place in our society again,” he said at the magistrates’ gathering.
Kerchove, who has headed the counter-terrorism unit in Brussels for seven years, said “there was always an element of uncertainty”.
“I’ve always said that our societies need to learn to live with the terrorist risk,” he said.
“It’s not just people leaving for Syria and coming back, or members of old networks. There is also those inspired by the Internet.
“Neutralising someone who is becoming more and more radical, who is seduced on his own by the sirens of radical Islam and decides to carry out some action on his own, which is very easy — that’s beyond what our intelligence services can do.”
Meanwhile, Cyprus and Greece have agreed with Egypt on the need to step up cooperation in the fight against “terrorism” in the troubled eastern Mediterranean region.
President Nicos Anastasiades of Cyprus, his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras made the pledge after talks in Nicosia.
Scourge
In a declaration, they said the “scourge of international terrorism” now threatens Europe, the Gulf, and the Middle East and North Africa, as well as the Sahel region and sub-Saharan Africa.
“We strongly condemn all terrorist actions and call upon all states to actively and effectively confront this menace and to step up cooperation on security matters with a view to countering extremist groups and exposing their political and financial supporters,” they said.
The three agreed to jointly combat terrorism and violent extremism for the sake of security in the eastern Mediterranean, a region virtually encircled by conflicts.
“We are encouraged by the recent gains of the Iraqi forces in Iraq with the support of the anti-ISIL international coalition,” the statement said, using another name for the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group.
Anastasiades, Tsipras and Sisi expressed their “support for the legitimate government of Yemen and for the preservation of its unity and territorial integrity”.
They said the only way forward was for UN-led efforts to resume inclusive talks in Yemen, where an advance by Iran-backed Shiite rebels has forced President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi to flee to Saudi Arabia. Their statement also backed UN envoy Staffan de Mistura, who on Monday begins new talks aimed at launching full negotiations to end Syria’s four-year conflict.
They said they were “gravely concerned over the deterioration of the security situation in Libya” and the growing terrorist threat affecting security and stability in neighbouring countries. The leaders of Cyprus, Greece and Egypt said they were committed to tackling the often deadly problem of migrant trafficking across the Mediterranean.
“We agree to mobilise all efforts at our disposal to prevent further loss of life at sea and to tackle the root causes of the human tragedy that we are facing.”