Paris Olympics security sweep upends lives, courts overturn cases

[July 25, 2024]  By Layli Foroudi, Juliette Jabkhiro

PARIS (Reuters) -French paramedic Seifelislam Benadda had just dropped off a patient at hospital on July 1, he said, when police informed him he was prohibited from leaving his hometown in the Paris suburbs, saying he was a potential threat to the Olympic Games.

For the next nine days, instead of driving his ambulance, the 28-year-old checked in at the Nogent-sur-Marne police station at midday and fought to overturn the administrative measure, which alleged he posed a terrorist risk.

As part of a vast security operation for the Paris Games, which start on Friday, authorities have turned to powers passed under a 2017 anti-terror law, placing 155 people under surveillance measures that strictly limit their movement and oblige them to register daily with police even though some have never faced criminal charges, according to official data and a Reuters review of cases.

France, which has a recent history of terror attacks, is on its highest state of alert ahead of the Games, including at Friday's opening ceremony on the Seine. In May, police arrested an 18-year-old suspected of planning a jihadist attack on the Saint-Etienne stadium, hosting Olympic football. Last week, a neo-Nazi was arrested on suspicion of plotting an attack during the passage of the Olympic flame.

Known as MICAS, the surveillance measures had until recently mainly been used to monitor people after prison sentences. In the context of the Olympics, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said at a news conference on July 17, the powers were only used to target people he described as "very dangerous" and potentially able to carry out attacks.

However, 17 of the cases reviewed by Reuters targeted people without previous terrorism-related convictions or charges. In total, the news agency looked at 27 MICAS cases, using court documents and interviews with more than a dozen lawyers and 10 of the people concerned, finding that in several cases police presented scant evidence to justify the measures.

In response to a question from Reuters, Darmanin told reporters on Tuesday that MICAS could be used “exceptionally” against people who had not been convicted of terrorism, when the government can demonstrate to a judge that they pose a threat.

Other countries have ramped up their use of anti-terrorism powers ahead of major events, including Britain's increase in arrests ahead of the 2012 London Olympics. Reuters has previously documented how French authorities transferred hundreds of squatters and jailed hundreds of people in an effort to clear the streets of hawkers and crime ahead of the Games.

Jean-Francois Morant, a lawyer defending a dozen people hit with MICAS measures before the Olympics, acknowledged the need for precaution given heightened security risks, but called the MICAS program "excessive and disproportionate."

Morant said the government's broader use of the measures preemptively due to an event like the Games was unprecedented.

Such cases, along with the sometimes thin evidence, suggested MICAS were in some incidences imposed opportunistically rather than after solid investigation, he said.

Judges have overturned or partly overturned six of the cases reviewed by Reuters, while four have been suspended or partially suspended. At least 24 appeal decisions on MICAS related to the Olympics have been issued since May, according to a Reuters tally of decisions published by courts or provided by lawyers.

On July 9, the Melun administrative court south of Paris paused the measures against Benadda and he returned to work. On Wednesday, it issued a final ruling cancelling the MICAS, saying the Interior Ministry failed to show he was a threat

Before the MICAS order, Benadda had planned to attend the opening ceremony with his girlfriend, who got tickets through her public sector job.

"It's once in your lifetime," he said in an interview. But now, "I'm scared of going. If something happens and they say I was there I might have big problems."

TROUBLE AT HOME

Several cases reviewed by Reuters show that the Olympic sweep has dragged relatives of people convicted of terror crimes into difficulties years after their family members served their sentences.

Benadda has never been accused of terror activities or radicalism.

However, two of his brothers were convicted of terrorism-related crimes, in 2017 and 2018, a fact cited in the intelligence report used to support the measures against him. One of the brothers served a 12-month suspended prison sentence and currently has a MICAS. The other was released in 2020 after a 7-year sentence and is currently in Algeria, Benadda said.

Benadda distanced himself from his brothers, saying the family was paying a heavy toll for their past crimes.

"I'm not a danger, my role is to help people, to reassure and care if they are hurt," he said.

At 5:40 am on May 21, police raided the apartment where Benadda lives with his parents and siblings, including the two brothers, handcuffing his mother along with everybody else, and putting a gun to Benadda's head, he said.

A police report said no suspicious material connected to Benadda was found during the visit. The Interior Ministry told the court they found Salafi books in one of the brothers’ rooms.

Johann Bihr from the International Prison Observatory, a rights group, said he had heard of hundreds of such home raids in the weeks before the Games. During a recent hearing at a Paris appeals court, a court official cited 200 appeals in the last week of June against raids, more than all the appeals in the 12 months to October 2021, the most recent public data shows. The Interior Ministry said Olympics-related raids had tripled to 165 in 2024 compared to last year.

Finding the balance between public security and personal liberty, including freedoms enshrined in France's constitution, is a significant challenge for authorities, said Benadda's lawyer Imad Bennouf.

Paramedic Seifelislam Benadda, 28, poses next to his ambulance in Nogent-sur-Marne, near Paris, France, July 22, 2024. REUTERS/Sarah Meyssonnier

But, Bennouf said, it was their obligation to "look objectively at the profile of each person" before taking action.

Benadda's intelligence report, reviewed by Reuters, alleged "relations with radicalized people," including his brothers and a neighbor it said he was in touch with seven years ago. Benadda says the person was just someone he said hello to in the street, not a close acquaintance.

Nicolas Klausser, a sociologist with France's national science research institute, the CNRS, who studies MICAS cases said the intelligence reports, known as "white memos" in many cases failed to include detailed information that someone represents a threat, with this lack of detail being more prevalent in the Olympics-related cases he had seen.

At two hearings attended by Reuters, the representative for the Interior Ministry said details in the intelligence notes were intentionally vague in order to protect sources. The Interior Ministry did not respond to a Reuters question about the lack of detail.

Benadda's intelligence report cited his use of traditional dress to attend Friday prayers and described the mosque he attends as ‘hardline.’ Benadda said he has only been to the mosque once this year, during the Eid celebration. A local interfaith body and the local council told Reuters they worked closely with the mosque and had no indications it promoted radical teachings.

In five other cases reviewed by Reuters, the ministry appeared to conflate practices such as praying or enlisting children in a private Muslim school with threatening behavior.

‘IMPRECISE’ INTEL

On the morning of June 29, wrestling coach Radjabo Omar drove to Charles de Gaulle airport to meet his daughter, who was returning from a wrestling contest.

While he was out, police in his town of Ivry-sur-Seine came to Omar's home, he said. Later that day they told him he was prohibited from leaving town or attending Olympic ceremonies there, the MICAS order shows.

In the intelligence report supporting the measure, investigators claimed that as a coach Omar, 43, might radicalize Muslim youth. It said his wrestling club banned women and non-Muslims.

Those accusations are untrue, Omar's lawyer Antoine Ory said in a hearing to appeal the MICAS in the Melun administrative court. The club has a high proportion of women wrestlers, according to the regional wrestling federation. Ory also pointed out that Omar's own daughter was a successful wrestler. Reuters found no evidence that the publicly-funded club bans non-Muslims, which would be illegal in France.

The accusations were so far-fetched they "would make you smile if the consequences on the life of Mr Omar were not so serious," Ory said in court.

In another example of a family member’s past crimes being cited as evidence, the suspicion against Omar dates to a brush with the law in 2013, when his brother robbed a Quick fast-food restaurant to finance a planned trip to Syria to join ISIS, the memo indicates. Omar was initially accused of handling stolen goods but the charges were dropped due to lack of evidence. Omar denied any involvement or prior knowledge of the robbery or his brother's plans.

On July 19, the court overturned the order, describing the intelligence memo as imprecise and lacking detail, according to the ruling. Furthermore, the court said, the Interior Ministry failed to establish that Omar adhered to or promoted an ideology inciting acts of terror, or maintained contact with suspicious individuals.

In 2016, Omar's brother was convicted and served a prison sentence. Omar has consistently denounced his actions and maintains he has no contact with him, the court ruling noted.

Abdourahmane Ridouane, head of a mosque association on the edge of Bordeaux, said he had never been charged with a criminal offence but was hit with a MICAS order on May 22. It cited pro-Palestinian and anti-Western posts on Facebook that the Interior Ministry said legitimised and incited violence.

“I’ve lived in France for 35 years, I’ve never committed any act of violence, I’ve never called on people to commit any violence, I’ve never supported any attack,” he told Reuters.

Others targeted by MICAS measures who do have a clear history of involvement in jihadi movements say the measures penalize them for crimes they have already served sentences for.

Imprisoned for seven years until 2022 and stripped of French nationality for helping to send individuals to join an armed group close to al Qaeda in Syria, Mohamed Mazouz sought a fresh start upon release, he said.

"When I left prison, I thought I would start again. It was more than turning the page, I had closed the book and got a new book," said Mazouz, who was put under house arrest by ministerial decree in May after his MICAS was renewed for the maximum number of times.

Nicolas Amadio, a social scientist at the University of Strasbourg studying violent extremism said that after the Games, authorities will need to work with people who felt unjustly targeted by the security measures.

"The rise in the number of MICAS orders is to facilitate the work of law enforcement but it can create frustration and a sense of injustice," he said.

(Reporting by Layli Foroudi and Juliette Jabkhiro; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel)

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