France has new anti-terror law
Controversial Bill approved despite its threat to civil liberties
PARIS: The French parliament adopted a controversial anti-terror Bill that gives the authorities permanent new powers to search homes, shut places of worship and restrict freedom of movement.
The new law, which will replace the state of emergency imposed after the 2015 Paris attacks, was approved by the Senate on its second reading yesterday, despite campaigners warning of a threat to civil liberties.
The lower house National Assembly overwhelmingly approved it last week.
The legislation, which sparked weeks of intense debate in parlia- ment, makes permanent several of the measures included in the emergency laws enacted after the Paris attacks, in which 130 people were killed.
The state of emergency expires on Nov 1, after being extended six times.
In a major speech on security President Emmanuel Macron said the compromise text would allow the authorities to combat terrorism “without abandoning our values and principles”.
Addressing an audience of security force members, he urged them to “fully utilise” the powers granted to them by the new law, which allows the authorities to heavily curtail the movements of suspected extremist sympathisers, to close religious sites that promote radical ideas, and throw up security perimeters around any event deemed vulnerable to attack.
The new anti-terror legislation has encountered little resistance from a public traumatised by a string of extremist attacks.
A recent poll found 57% of the French were in favour.
Macron said he would bolster intelligence gathering in prisons, a breeding ground for radicalisation, and devise programmes to prevent young people from coming under the spell of extremist groups.
The new law will also enable the authorities to carry out more on-the-spot checks in border areas.
Rights groups have voiced fears that such checks will be used by the police against migrants and minorities, particularly Muslims.
Human Rights Watch criticised what it called a “normalisation of emergency powers” and UN experts raised objections in a letter to the French government last month.
Both Macron and his Interior Minister Gerard Collomb argued that the Bill struck the right balance between security and individual freedoms. — AFP