It would be a simple “management tool”. Ministry of Justice officials acknowledged on Monday in front of an administrative court that there was a nominative case in Lille of people placed in police custody during their retirement mobilization. The court considered two motions for interim measures filed by the Association for the Defense of Constitutional Freedoms (Adelico) and the French Lawyers’ Syndicate, as well as the Human Rights League (LDH), following a Mediapart article condemning such a filing. A judge is due to rule Thursday on its legality.
It’s an Excel spreadsheet called “Criminal Proceedings Monitoring – Pension Reform Movement” that lists the last names, first names, dates of birth of people detained by police during demonstrations, and the criminal consequences given. According to the ministry, the file is authorized by a regulation governing the Cassiopée database, which aggregates in secure software the data of defendants, victims or witnesses of trials over the past ten years.
The spreadsheet examined “simply aggregates procedures related to the same event that Cassiopée does not allow to be done in real time” and contains “no other information” than what is allowed in this database, detailed at the hearing ministry representative. . If “the Chancellery did not give this instruction,” then it was “a tool of local government,” he assured. It “allows for the management of a specific event” with a high “volume of police custody”, another spokesperson explained, citing the existence of other files of this type in other cities.
Dozens of victims
In collecting personal information, prosecutors “have taken the liberty of adding an important piece of data: political opinion.” All these people protested against the reform, objected Jean-Baptiste Soufron, a lawyer for Adelico and SAF. “This is not sanctioned” and “this is tantamount to filing statements with political opponents,” he denounced.
“If the goal is only statistical, why continue with identifying data, and not be content with the figures of the investigation,” said LDH lawyer Marion Ogier. According to her, the dossier potentially included several dozen people, from 50 to 100 arrests occurred in the jurisdiction of Lille since March 17, the date when the dossier was created after the tightening of mobilization after the application of 49.3.
The prosecutor of Lille and the prosecutor of Douay, who were also the subjects of appeal, were not present and were not represented at the hearing. A decision is expected “over the weekend,” Marion Ogier said on Twitter.
Source: Le Parisien
I have worked in the news industry for over 12 years. I have a vast amount of experience in different areas of the industry, including politics. I am currently a political news writer for 24 News Recorder. I have also written a book about politics. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my family and friends, as well as traveling.
