Rights group slams French law on terror suspects

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Rights group slams French law on terror suspects

By JENNY BARCHFIELD, Associated Press Writer Wed Jul 2, 11:18 AM ET

PARIS - A Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday said France's legal framework for prosecuting terror suspects is too broad, resulting in too many arrests based on minimal evidence and too many convictions based on circumstantial evidence.

The U.S.-based group said France's pre-emptive approach to fighting terror and lack of appropriate safeguards within the criminal justice system has put the country "on the wrong side of human rights law."

French officials' interrogation tactics, the use of foreign intelligence and suspects' limited access to legal counsel deepen the problem, the report said.

"French counterterrorism laws and procedures undermine the right of those facing charges of terrorism to a fair trial," the 84-page report said.
French officials were quick to defend their system.

"All our laws on counterterrorism were taken in response to a threat," government spokesman Luc Chatel said Wednesday.

"French justice is exemplary and its counterterrorism laws are regarded as models by other countries around the world," Justice Ministry spokesman Guillaume Didier told The Associated Press.

The Human Rights Watch report said a blanket charge often brought against terror suspects is at the heart of the problem. The charge — criminal association in relation to a terrorist undertaking — is too sweeping, the report says, because "no specific terrorist act need be planned, much less executed, to give rise to the offense."

Human Rights Watch called cases brought under the charge "guilty-by-association prosecutions" and complained that people who had any contact with the suspects — including family members, neighbors and even mere acquaintances — were sometimes detained.

"It allows for too much flexibility in the interpretation," the report's author, Judith Sunderland, told The Associated Press. "So you have a history in France of using this charge to arrest large numbers of people on the basis of very little evidence they have anything to do with a terrorist plot. "

The report said France's Justice Ministry was unable to provide statistics on how many people had faced the charge, but cited a Europol study saying France arrested 130 suspected Islamists in the first 10 months of 2005. Only 30 were ordered to be held in pretrial custody, the Europol report said.

In the 1980s, France was hit by a series of terror attacks on trains, subways and department stores. In 1995, a blast by Algerian Islamic militants in Paris' Saint-Michel train station killed eight people and injured 150. There have been no attacks since, despite calls by an Algeria-based al-Qaida affiliate to target France.

Sunderland also criticized the French practice of holding suspects for up to six days with little legal counsel.

The report added there were "credible allegations of physical abuse of terrorism suspects in French police custody," citing testimony from those detained that sleep deprivation, disorientation, constant repetitive questioning and psychological pressure were common.

In addition, Sunderland said statements provided by third countries, often with poor human rights records, are used in the French proceedings.
"France has an obligation under international law to ensure that any evidence obtained under torture is never used in any part of legal proceedings in France," she said.

The group recommended that France require proof that suspects intend to participate in a terror plot and allow for the presence of a lawyer from the beginning of detentions.

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