France: Parliament approves sweeping anti-terror bill
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The lower house of the French Parliament has approved a new counter-terrorism bill that critics say will entrench France’s state of emergency.
The bill will provide for French authorities to continue to search homes and confine individuals to their home towns without need for judicial approval once the state of emergency expires.
Instead of judges, members of the government will be able to approve measures such as the confinement of people to their home towns, requiring them to report to a police station on a daily basis.
Authorities will also be allowed to mount security perimeters around railway stations and airports and to shut down mosques or other places of worship where preachers are found to be promoting radicalism.
The bill was approved by by 415 to 127 with 19 abstentions. It will likely become law before the state of emergency expires on 1 November.
In a statement, Amnesty International France said: “Against the most informed opinions of human rights organisations and social movements, lawyers and international bodies - recently two UN special rapporteurs - there will be incorporated in the ordinary law measures which were inspired by a state of emergency.”
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