Nicolas Sarkozy wished Hollande has done : to punish the consultation of internet sites terrorists. Except that the constitutional Council has just declared this criminal offence is contrary to fundamental rights.
“The constitutional Council has concluded, regarding the criterion of necessity of the contested provisions, the administrative and judicial authorities have, regardless of the disputed article, of many prerogatives, not only to monitor the communication services at public online causing terrorism or in making the apology and punish the perpetrators, but also to monitor a person consultant of these services and to challenge and to sanction it when this consultation is accompanied by a behavior revealing a terrorist intent, even before the project entered its implementation phase”, conclude the Sages, in a decision published Friday, February 10.
The Board retoque a provision which has already garnered 6 convictions. Return-on-sea serpent of the war on terrorism, defended by the right and adopted by the left.
“When you look at images of jihadist, it is a jihadist”, tançait Nicolas Sarkozy in “the Point”. It is the fad of the former president since 2012, and the case of Mohamed Merah. Therefore, it intends to resume the article 227-23 of the penal Code, which penalizes websites consultation on child abuse, broadening its scope to sites making an “apology of terrorism or carrying calls for hate or violence.”
When Nicolas Sarkozy left the Elysée palace, the other to take his suite, whose deputies Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, or Guillaume Larrivé, but the idea is rejected by the left.
But the terrorist attacks on the 13 November and of Nice have changed the game. After the censorship of the internet, the Parliament adopted last may a reform criminal law, creating the crime of consulting the usual internet sites, terrorist, punishable by a sentence of two years imprisonment and 30,000 euros fine.
Multiplication sentences
A site in Arabic, referring to Osama Bin Laden (Richard B. Levine/Newscom/Sipa)
In June, in a full state of emergency, this new criminal offence is created. And it is applied as of the summer :
# On August 8, a man was sentenced to Chartres to two years of prison. His lawyer told Rue 89 that his client, 31-year-old would consult these sites “very sporadically after the Bataclan, and it is a fast strong after 14-July”, and the bombing of Nice. In his defence, the applicant said at the hearing “be gone from curiosity, to understand how someone can come here.”
“My client has a profile ambiguous enough that in this moment of fear, and he was sentenced in a context,” said the lawyer.
# On August 19, a man of 19 years was sentenced by the criminal court of Nice, in appearance, immediate three-year jail to, all of the following : apology of terrorism and viewing websites. The young man regularly visited web pages showing scenes of decapitation and flag of Daech. On social networks, he even posed with a weapon dummy.
# on September 15, The Marseille correctional court sentenced him to two years of prison a 28 year old male to have accessed sites of propaganda of the islamic State (Daech) in a municipal library. He was convicted of being connected to 143 times on sites jihadists, to read texts and watch videos praising terrorism. The man defended himself by saying to have conducted an “apprentice journalist”. When asked why his mobile phone contained more than 100 propaganda videos, including a beheading, he replied :
“This is not because I’ve looked at that I adhere to.”
# On November 16, an Moroccan 22-year-old was sentenced to six months in jail to have visited the site of an american sociologist, who studies and dissects the propaganda of Daech, but found “jihadist” by the tribunal of Senlis. He should be expelled from the territory at the end of his sentence, before being prohibited to stay in France for ten years.
# on The 29th of November, an inhabitant of Tournon-sur-Rhône, a 32-year-old has been sentenced to two years of prison, after the discovery of images and videos in his computer and his cell phone. “I’m curious”, he pleaded before the court.
“I wanted to make the difference between true islam and false islam, now I understand”, he continued.
# On 22 December, a student of the Cher, was sentenced by the tribunal of Bourges to five years in prison, of which three-year-old farm, for apology of terrorism and consultation of sites praising terrorism. At the age of 18 years, he frequented sites that belong to the sphere jihadist, but is not suspected of trying to stage an attack.
“A presumption of bad faith”
government’s Campaign against jihadism (Joel Saget / AFP)
in mid-September, the lawyer of the man 28-year-old sentenced to two years in prison, filing a priority Issue of constitutionality to challenge the legality of the offense of viewing websites the jihadists. He believes that it is contrary to the universal Declaration of the rights of Man and of the citizen of 1789, insofar as it is a “threat to the freedom of communication and opinion”.
The provision also creates, according to him, “a presumption of bad faith” and a “breach of equality” between the citizens, some with a derogation (journalists, researchers, investigators). It is this query which has been forwarded to the constitutional Council, and which leads today on a censure of the law.
Since the fad of Nicolas Sarkozy, number of advocates argue that punishing someone for a “consultation as usual” is an elastic concept.
“Few decisions have been made on the basis of the article, and no one came to clarify the notion of ‘consultation usual’”, décryptait to “Obs” the lawyer Virginie Bensoussan-Brulé.
“idle curiosity is not illegal”
Especially as the very concept of the “jihadist website” or “website terrorist” does not exist. No precise definition has been given, therefore all depends on the interpretation of the court. Where can be the conviction in November for consulting the website of the sociologist Aaron Y. Zelin.
former Prime minister Manuel Valls had, moreover, deeply irritated with his “explain, this is already wanting a little excuse”. David Thomson, RFI journalist and expert in jihadism, pointed out that :
“A jihadist website, it no longer exists.”
Before moving on to the Rue 89 : “Since the disappearance of the forum jihadist French history, Ansar al-Haqq, there are still a few blogs without any great influence, but more sites jihadists to speak in French. Talk about jihadist website has no real meaning. Any propaganda is distributed in real-time on platforms such as Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, and more Snapchat.”
Finally, the belgian researcher Antoinette Rouvroy reminded on Rue 89 that :
“idle curiosity is not something illegal : we may very well have the morbid curiosity to go see that this is a jihadist website, without preparing to commit a terrorist act or join acts committed by others… Yes, we all have a background voyeuristic and it’s not illegal.”
arguments that appear to have brought to the Wise.
Boris Manenti
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