Written by Leila Foroudi and Juliette Gabkhero
PARIS (Reuters) – (The December 23 story has been corrected to clarify that Home Office figures refer to the number of MICAS orders issued, not individuals affected, in paragraph 9; paragraphs 10 and 13 have been amended to conform)
The first time the French police informed the Chechen refugee that he was forbidden from leaving the city of Strasbourg in the northeast of the country, and that he had to check on them daily, he did not think it was worth contesting the matter.
He explained that France was in the midst of a large-scale security operation for the Summer Olympics, and that he did not believe the authorities would listen to someone identified as a potential threat due to his interactions with people identified as “supporting jihadists.”
But when the Interior Ministry extended the order in late August to help protect a popular Christmas market that was the target of a deadly attack in 2018, the refugee, known to his friends as Khaled, appealed to the city's administrative court.
A panel of judges concluded that the measures were “disproportionate” and said in a decision issued on October 3 and seen by Reuters that he had no criminal record and had not been investigated for any crime.
While they maintained the ban on attending the Strasbourg Christmas market, they lifted other measures. But the ruling came so late that the 20-year-old was unable to enroll at a college where he was due to start a cybersecurity course in September, according to evidence presented by his lawyer.
“I lost my place. This year has been in vain,” Khaled told Reuters, speaking on condition that his surname be given because he feared his academic and professional ambitions would be derailed if he learned he was under police surveillance. .
The fatal car-ramming attack that occurred on Friday at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg sparked renewed scrutiny in a number of European countries regarding security arrangements for seasonal markets, which attract large crowds.
But the French Interior Ministry's widespread use of powers introduced under a 2017 anti-terrorism law to strictly limit the movements of individuals deemed a serious security threat was already drawing criticism from some lawyers and human rights activists before the attack.
At least 547 such orders were issued against people who participated in the Paris Olympics, according to a parliamentary report published on December 11, although some, like Khaled, never faced criminal charges.
Now, some lawyers and activists worry that wider use of these orders, known as the “Individual Measure of Administrative Control and Surveillance” or by the French acronym MICAS, could become the norm at other major public events.
The Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for the police, and the local authority of the Basse-Rhin region, which includes Strasbourg, did not answer questions about those targeted because of the Christmas market.
Reuters has identified at least 12 cases, based on court documents and interviews with lawyers and one of the people involved. At least 10 of them had no terrorism convictions, although one person had been previously banned from entering the market. Reuters was not immediately able to determine the details of the other two individuals.
In the first five years after the counter-terrorism law came into force on 1 November 2017, the number of MICAS orders issued for any reason in Bas-Rhin did not exceed seven in any 12-month period, according to figures provided by the counter-terrorism office. The Ministry of Interior in front of Parliament.
Courts nationwide have annulled or suspended at least 55 orders related to the Olympics and Christmas this year, according to a parliamentary report released in December and a Reuters review of appeals to the Strasbourg court.
“The Olympics used to be a MICAS free-for-all, so now I get the impression that the Home Office is fairly unrestrained about any event that attracts hundreds of thousands,” said David Poincinion, a lawyer representing four people with MICAS orders. For toys, two of which have been extended for the Christmas market.
He is particularly concerned about cases involving people with no terrorism convictions, saying: “It has almost become a tool of predictive justice.”
Ben Saul, the UN special rapporteur on counter-terrorism and human rights, said France should use MICAS orders sparingly “to address the real threat of terrorism where less intrusive means are not sufficient.”
“Because they may be imposed without the robust fair trial guarantees provided by a criminal trial, there is a greater risk of abuse, abuse or discrimination,” he told Reuters.
The Ministry of Interior did not comment. Former Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said in July that the measures were only used on people he described as “extremely dangerous” and potentially capable of carrying out attacks.
Stricter security laws
The introduction of the MICAS orders was part of a continuing tightening of French security laws over the past decade as President Emmanuel Macron's government responded to deadly attacks and a growing political threat from the far right.
Until recently, these measures were mainly used to monitor people after prison sentences.
Reuters was unable to obtain data for last year. But former prisoners accounted for 79% of the 136 MICAS orders issued in the year to October 2022, according to figures in an unpublished Home Office report, which was submitted to parliament in 2023 and verified by two sources.
An intelligence source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss security matters, said in November that MICAS orders had proven effective during the Olympics, and authorities would take the same risk-free approach to those who might target Christmas markets.
A tradition dating back to the Middle Ages, many towns host festive markets, featuring stalls offering gifts, decorations and sweets such as pastries and mulled wine.
The exhibition in Strasbourg is the oldest and largest in France, attracting about 3 million visitors last year.
In 2018, a gunman opened fire there, killing five people and wounding 11 others. The attacker was on a security watch list and pledged allegiance to ISIS.
The suspect in the Magdeburg attack, which killed at least five people and injured dozens, is a 50-year-old psychiatrist from Saudi Arabia who has lived in Germany for nearly two decades.
The motive remains unclear. Investigators are investigating the suspect's criticism of the treatment of Saudi refugees in Germany, among other matters. He also has a history of anti-Islamic rhetoric, and has expressed support on the social media platform X for the far-right Alternative for Germany party.
Increase in appeals
As French authorities have expanded their use of MICAS orders, they have faced more successful jurisdictional challenges.
As of November, judges across the country had overturned or suspended 50 MICAS orders related to the Olympics, about 9%, according to the parliamentary report. She added that this was “often due to insufficient evidence of a threat” in the intelligence reports used to justify the actions.
There have also been at least five successful appeals against measures issued for the Christmas market, according to Strasbourg court records.
In the first five years after MICAS orders were introduced, 13 out of 1,203 orders, or 1%, were successfully appealed, according to the Home Office's 2023 report.
The increase could partly be a product of the growing number of appeals, but the breadth of people targeted is likely an important factor, said Nicolas Clauser, a legal researcher at the French National Center for Scientific Research who studies MICAS cases.
They include people who may know someone who has a terrorism conviction, or made statements about the Israeli war in Gaza that authorities described as an “apology for terrorism,” but who have no criminal records themselves, Clauser said.
In Khaled's case, intelligence reports seen by Reuters said that he spent time with a person who was convicted of association with a group planning a terrorist act and another who was convicted of “apologizing for terrorism.”
Khaled said these were people he knew from the neighborhood he grew up in or the gym he frequented, but he wasn't close to either.
Reports also allege ties with other people described as “jihadist supporters.” Most of these were also neighborhood acquaintances, Khaled said. He said the three had been friends for some time, but had not discussed violent extremism.
On one occasion, Khaled reportedly told a friend that “a dirty trick is being set up, and that he would be frankly pleased.” The conversation took place on the eve of the 2020 assassination of a French high school teacher, who showed his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a class on freedom of expression, according to intelligence reports.
Khaled denies saying that. He told Reuters that the conversation was about a wedding and not the assassination of Samuel Paty.
His lawyer, Lucy Simon, dismissed the alleged statement as “nonsense”, saying that no evidence had been presented in intelligence notes, and no charges had been brought against her client in connection with the murder.
The Ministry of Interior did not comment. Its representatives said in hearings for other cases that details in intelligence memos were deliberately vague to protect sources.
Khaled said he was shocked and worried when he learned from a news report that the attack was carried out by a teenager of Chechen origin.
“It's the community that's going to pay the price,” he recalls.
On December 6, the Ministry of Interior extended the MICAS order for a third time. He appealed and is awaiting the result.
