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PARIS-Five years ago, the police arrested a Frenchman in his twenties who had obtained false identity papers and had bought paramilitary clothing. as part of a rallying plan to Syrian militants
was convicted of conspiring to support a terrorist group, under laws that grant the French authorities any latitude to remove extremists from the street, according to his lawyer.
In the coming weeks, he must be released, among the first radicalized detainees during the war in Syria and the rise of the Islamic State who will be released from French prisons before the end of the year. next.
With their release, French antiterrorist authorities are preparing for the resurgence of a security threat that has faded when they broke the Islamic State's terrorist cells in Europe. In an attempt to prevent potential attacks, the French police formed a new unit to monitor the former detainees.
"We run a big risk: to see people come out of prison at the end of their sentence who will not have been reformed at all. even more extreme because of their time spent in the interior,
François Molins
said on national television in May
This group includes prisoners finishing longer sentences who were sentenced before the Syrian war, such as
Djamel Beghal,
who left the prison on Monday. Mr Beghal received his first terrorism-related conviction in 2001, another in 2013, and French magistrates said he was the mentor of two of the men who launched the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015
. Beghal is sent directly from France to his native Algeria, French media reported.
About 50 people serving sentences related to terrorism and 400 others described as "radicalized" in prison will be released before the end of 2019, according to the Ministry of Justice.
In a country still marked by a string of lethal terrorist attacks over the past three years – many of which have been perpetrated by people who have spent time in French prisons – their imminent return to society will put to test the ability of security services to handle the potential threat. were convicted of non-terrorist crimes but embraced radical Islam in prison, said the Justice Department. Others were convicted of terrorist offenses that resulted in sentences of less than five years.
In 2016, France passed tougher laws that extended the sentences for certain terrorist offenses. In 2017, the average imprisonment term in the European Union for terrorism-related crimes was five years, according to Eurojust, an EU agency.
Nassim was sentenced to six years. Sentences for more serious terrorism offenses were longer. Before his arrest, he was unemployed, marrying extremist views online from his home in the Nice Riviera, according to his lawyer.
Camille Lucotte.
Nassim still practices a "rigorous" form of Islam, said Ms. Lucotte, who agreed to discuss her case on condition that her family name not be disclosed
.
French authorities fear that liberated extremists will still support violence.
"We will anticipate their release and we will follow them very closely," said the Minister of Justice.
Nicole Belloubet
People recently released from French prisons have committed notorious terrorist attacks in recent years, including a 19-year-old man who killed a priest in a church in northern France and a man who stabbed a police captain . His companion at their home outside Paris
The number of extremists in French prisons has increased in recent years alongside the rise of the Islamic State, said the Justice Ministry. As it gained ground in Iraq and Syria, recruiters and online propaganda attracted thousands of followers to the group's cause.
A French crackdown caused the number of extremists in prison to rise for terrorism-related offenses. these inmates mingled with the larger prison population, increasing the possibility that more people might be radicalized.
There are currently 512 people imprisoned in France for terrorism-related crimes, according to the Ministry of Justice, more than three times in four years. According to government data, an estimated 1,200 other prisoners are considered "radicalized", an increase of 70% since 2015.
Intelligence agencies have struggled to monitor the large numbers of people rapidly radicalized online by the government. Islamic State and its supporters.
Jean-Louis Bruguière,
a former anti-terrorist magistrate.
"We have seen an unprecedented surge [potential terrorists] in our country," he said. "It was exponential."
Those who were released include people who were sentenced before the rise of the Islamic State – and some radicalized other inmates, the French authorities said.
million. Beghal, the Algerian man released Monday, had received a 10-year sentence in 2013 for planning
Ali Belkacem,
convicted of bombing a Paris metro station in 1995, escape from prison; the plan has never been executed.
Beghal had already been sentenced to 10 years for a 2001 plot to bomb the American Embassy in Paris.
The new unit within UCLAT, the antiterrorist division of the French police, will try to prevent such radicalizations. The unit will share information between prison services and intelligence agencies, and will review details such as the plans of the people being monitored to change addresses or travel abroad, according to a report. Advisor to the Minister of the Interior
. focus on this issue "after experiencing the attacks of recent years, said
Farhad Khosrokhavar,
Sociologist at the School of Higher Studies in Social Sciences and author of a new book on jihad. "Now the government is much more scared than before."
Write to Matthew Dalton at [email protected]
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