Special measures are to be taken to monitor certain travellers, particularly those visiting known terrorist havens abroad. It will be compulsory for phone and internet companies to keep records of connections for three months. Extra attention will be paid to monitoring internet cafés, known to have been used by terrorists in the past. The legal period of detention without charge has been extended to six days. At the same time, the law gives préfets powers to ban troublemakers from sports stadia. It was presented to parliament by the Minister of the Interior Nicolas Sarkozy.
The bill was supported by the majority UMP and their uncertain allies, the UDF. The Communists voted against. The Socialists voted differently in the two chambers. In the Senate they opposed the measure vigorously and voted against, whereas the Socialist députés abstained but cooperated with the Government to help the measure through. A number of Socialist amendments were accepted by the Government.
In exchange for the cooperation of the députés, the Interior Minister has agreed to bring forward a proposed law that will bring the Renseignements Généraux under parliamentary scrutiny as soon as possible. They are the French equivalent of MI5, responsible for intelligence operations in metropolitan France.
Meanwhile, 22 suspected Islamist fundamentalists have been arrested in the Île de France and the Oise. They are accused of plotting terrorist acts and financing terrorism. The arrests were carried out by police from the Direction de la surveillance du territoire acting under the orders of top anti-terrorist judge Jean- Louis Bruyières.
It has also been announced that 27 suspects are to be charged with aiding and abetting terrorist acts. The original arrests took place between December 2002 and January 2005. Ten of the accused are in prison awaiting trial. The others are on bail. They are members of what is known as the Tchetchen network, la filière tchétchène. The accused include an Algerian imam, arrested with his wife and two sons.
They are all suspected of involvement in a planned chemical or biological attack on Russian targets in Paris, and of having helped send recruits to Tchetchenya. The trial is to take place in Paris this summer. Security service sources have let it be known that they are currently on a heightened state of alert against terrorist attacks in France.
Major immigrant network dismantled
Twenty-two people have been arrested in France, in a cross-border crackdown on immigrant smuggling between Afghanistan and Britain. A total of 53 people were detained, of which 18 in Italy, seven in Britain, and three each in Turkey and Greece. The Paris chief prosecutor said that the network was the biggest of its kind so far uncovered in France.The head of the network was arrested in Britain on a European arrest warrant issued in Paris. The French authorities are seeking his extradition. The prosecutor said that immigrants paid between ?6,000 and ?7,000 to cross Europe and that thousands had used the route to get to Britain. The immigrants were left to their own devices at Calais to make it difficult for the authorities to trace the organisers.
This chem-bio issue may be the impetus behind President Chirac's recent retaliatory pronouncements.