French PM unveils package of anti-terror measures

 

Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Wednesday announced France would adopt new counter-terrorism measures in the wake of the deadly Paris attacks earlier this month, including strengthening intelligence services and preventing youth radicalisation.

Valls said the government would hire around 2,600 new personnel and spend an additional 425 million euros ($490 million) over three years as part of “exceptional measures” to fight terrorism on different fronts.

“Terrorism has struck our soil in an unprecedented way… and the threat of terrorism remains high, French citizens deserve to know the truth,” Valls told a press conference at the Elysée presidential palace in Paris, recalling a string of attacks earlier this month that claimed the lives of 17 people.

Flanked by five government ministers, including Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, Valls gave the broad outlines of a plan that will include boosting the number of counter-terrorism officers, better equipment for police, a legal framework for prosecutors to bring terrorists to justice, and more Muslim chaplains in French jails, among other steps.

“We must act and act quickly, it is everyone’s responsibility, but foremost the government’s responsibility,” Valls told journalists in a televised address, insisting that while the new measures were exceptional, they needed to respect French law and values.

Valls had promised a string of new counter-terrorism measures when he addressed lawmakers at the National Assembly on January 13.

F24'S MELISSA BELL ON VALLS'S 'TWO-PRONGED' APPROACH TO TERROR THREAT

Eyes on the web

The prime minister said there were around 3,000 people in France with direct or indirect ties to terrorism networks that needed to be kept under surveillance by intelligence services. He called for closer cooperation between European countries and “transit” countries in tracking radicals.

Saïd and Chérif Kouachi, the two brothers who killed 12 people at the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 7, had travelled to Yemen for militant training in the past and were known by French intelligence services. However, the pair had not been active in jihadist circles for years before the attack, so were not being followed by police.

Valls also drew attention to the fact that current anti-terrorism laws had been passed before the rise of the Internet, and that new legislation was needed to help monitor communication between extremists and thwart jihadist propaganda.

Repeating previous announcements, he said France would create a new terror watch list. He said the database would contain the names of all people arrested or questioned in connection to terrorism, and that competent authorities would be instructed to keep track of addresses and any foreign travel for those on the list.

He said France needed to do more to prevent the radicalisation of youths living in poor communities and of inmates in prison. He said the government had started setting up channels for families to signal worrying behavior to authorities, and promised to support the work of community organizations.

Valls added that the country would respect public finance commitments made to its EU partners despite extra spending on security measures, saying savings would be made in other areas.

Arrests

The measures detailed by the prime minister came as four men were handed preliminary charges of providing logistical support to one of the Paris terror attackers, the first charges filed for three deadly attacks that occurred between January 7 and 9.

Meanwhile, a Bulgarian court ruled Tuesday that Frenchman Fritz-Joly Joachin, who admitted being an “old friend” of the Kouachi brothers but denied being an extremist, should be extradited to France.

Joachin, 29, was arrested on January 1 as he tried to cross from Bulgaria into Turkey.