2023-06-24 10:47:28
UK police said Friday that they were taking no further action against a French publisher who was controversially stopped at London’s St Pancras station under terror legislation and arrested.
Published: 24 June 2023 10:47 CEST
UK police said Friday that they were taking no further action against a French publisher who was controversially stopped at London’s St Pancras station under terror legislation and arrested.
Ernest Moret, who works at left-wing French publisher Editions La Fabrique, was travelling to the London Book Fair in April when he was detained by British border officers after arriving from Paris. He was bailed, and later released under investigation.
But Metropolitan Police said Friday that they had been advised by the country’s prosecution service that “the evidential test has not been met, therefore, no further action will be taken.”
UK police faced criticism over the arrest under terrorism legislation for “obstructing” the search, which was allegedly prompted by his participation in recent pension reforms protests in France.
Police said they stopped him and arrested him on suspicion of “wilfully obstructing a Schedule 7 examination”.
Schedule 7 allows specially trained officers to search and detain individuals and goods passing through the UK’s border to determine whether they may be involved or used in “acts of terrorism”.
Moret’s publisher and UK-based Verso Books branded his treatment “scandalous”, while the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) called it “extraordinary”.
In a joint statement, Editions La Fabrique and Verso Books said the officers allegedly detained him “to determine whether he was engaged in terrorist acts or in possession of material for use in terrorism”.
“The police officers claimed that Ernest had participated in demonstrations in France as a justification for this act,” they added, calling the stance “remarkably inappropriate” and indicative of “complicity between French and British authorities”.
Dominic Murphy, who leads the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command, said “we are aware that this police interaction generated a lot of commentary about our use of Schedule 7 powers.
“The public would rightly expect that the use of Counter Terrorism powers is always carefully considered, and we have reflected on this particular interaction so we can identify any learning,” he added.
Moret is the foreign rights manager for popular science fiction author Alain Damasio as well as Editions La Fabrique.
An independent left-wing publisher, it specialises in essays by collectives, activists and philosophers.
France has been hit by months of sometimes violent protests over President Emmanuel Macron’s widely unpopular pension reforms, however they appear to be fizzling out.
#police #drop #controversial #case #French #publisher