Lhe prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nunez, affirmed, Thursday, March 23, that“there are no preventive arrests, that does not exist in our country”. The day before, the Minister of the Interior, Gérard Darmanin, asserted, wrongly, that the participation “to an undeclared demonstration is an offense that deserves arrest”.
We, lawyers, express our greatest concern at the policy of preventive arrests implemented under the authority of the prefect of police in the context of the demonstrations against the pension reform and the use of article 49.3 of the Constitution.
This reform and the terms of its adoption in Parliament have given rise to some of the most significant mobilizations that our country has ever known. Until the announcement by the Prime Minister of the commitment of the responsibility of her government, they took place in calm.
Instrumentalized criminal procedure
Since March 16, nearly nine hundred people have been arrested and taken into police custody as part of demonstrations in Paris. Widely mentioned by the press, these arrests target tourists, walkers and demonstrators, some minors. Following these police custody which could last several tens of hours, the great majority of these people profited from a classification without continuation.
These elements indicate that the prefect of police has integrated into his law enforcement policy the systematic use of preventive arrests.
However, criminal law, strictly interpreted, only authorizes the use of police custody with respect to the person against whom there are one or more plausible reasons to believe that he has committed or attempted to commit an offense punishable by imprisonment.
It is clear that by refusing to prosecute the persons arrested, the judicial authority admits the absence of the slightest offense against the persons concerned. The journalistic investigations and the testimonies of those arrested show that our criminal procedure is instrumentalized for the benefit of a policing policy that is, to say the least, particular.
A policy that violates freedoms
Either these arrests, carried out by the administrative authority, intervene against individuals who are presumed to be willing to commit any offence, they are then preventive; or these arrests intervene after an offense has been committed but against individuals taken at random from the crowd, they are then arbitrary.
You have 16.57% of this article left to read. The following is for subscribers only.