Representatives of the Ministry of Justice acknowledged this Monday, May 15 before the administrative court the existence of a nominative file in Lille of people placed in police custody during the mobilization on pensions, a simple ” management tool “ according to them.
The court was examining two applications for interim relief filed by the Association for the Defense of Constitutional Liberties (Adelico) and the Syndicate of Lawyers of France, as well as by the League for Human Rights (LDH) after an article by Médiapart denouncing such filing.
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The judge is due to rule Thursday on its legality.
This is an excel spreadsheet, named “Monitoring of criminal proceedings – pension reform movement” detailing the surnames, first names, dates of birth of the people placed in police custody during the demonstrations, and the criminal consequences given.
Demonstrations: “Serious violations of fundamental rights” in police custody, judges the controller of places of deprivation of liberty
According to the ministry, this file is authorized by the decree governing the Casiopée database, which brings together in secure software the data of defendants, victims or witnesses of legal proceedings over the past ten years.
The spreadsheet examined “simply brings together the procedures related to the same event, which Casiopée does not allow to do in real time”and does not contain “no further information” than those authorized in this base, detailed at the hearing a representative of the ministry. Whether “the chancellery did not give this instruction”it was a “tool for local management”he assured.
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“This amounts to filing political opponents”
That “allows the management of a particular event” with a strong “volume of police custody”explained another representative, referring to the existence of other files of this type in other cities.
By aggregating personal information, prosecutors “have allowed themselves to add a major piece of data: a political opinion”all these people having protested against the reform, objected Jean-Baptiste Soufron, lawyer for Adelico and SAF. Pensions: the Ministry of Justice recognizes the existence of a nominative file of demonstrators” It is not allowed “ et “this amounts to filing political opponents”he denounced.
“If the goal is only statistical, why keep identifying data, and not be satisfied with a survey number”highlighted the lawyer of the LDH, Marion Ogier.
According to her, a few dozen people have potentially been on file, 50 to 100 arrests having taken place in the jurisdiction of Lille since March 17, the date on which the file was created following the hardening of the mobilization after the use of 49-3 .
The prosecutor of Lille and the public prosecutor of Douai, also targeted by the appeals, were neither present nor represented at the hearing.
