France state of emergency declared for three months, allowing authorities to shut down websites and giving police sweeping new powers
The measures allow for anyone's house to be searched, people to be put under house arrest without trial and any website to be blocked
|
|
|
|
Police in France have been given huge new powers including the ability to put people under house arrest without trial and to block websites.
France's parliament has extended the country's state of emergency for three months, allowing authorities to get access to huge powers that date back to 1955.
The state of emergency was declared on Saturday, just after attacks that left 129 people dead.
Such a decision gives the police powers including the ability to keep people in their homes without trial, searching the homes of people without a warrant from a judge, and the power to block any website that is deemed a problem.
Rights groups have worried that the decision could become permanent, allowing for the extension of authorities' powers into normal life. But the French government said that such powers were necessary.
"This is the fast response of a democracy faced with barbarism. This is the effective legal response in the face of an ideology of chaos," Prime Minister Emmanuel Valls told parliament.
Valls said the measures were "modern and effective tools to fight the terrorist threat".
Under the state of emergency, police have the power to conduct searches without getting judicial warrants, though they cannot search the homes and offices of parliamentarians, journalists or lawyers.
The new measures mean anyone suspected of posing a threat to security can be placed under house arrest for 12 hours a day to restrict their movement. Even if the house arrest is lifted, suspects can be prevented from meeting others deemed a threat.
Electronic tagging can also be used to ensure suspects under house arrest who are particularly dangerous remain confined.
The authorities have the power to block Internet sites deemed to incite or advocate "acts of terrorism", public demonstrations are banned and groups inciting acts that could seriously affect public order can be dissolved.
Rights campaign group Amnesty International said the emergency measures must not become permanent fixtures.
"Time and again we have seen emergency measures extended and codified until they become part and parcel of the ordinary law, chipping steadily away at human rights," said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International's director for Europe and Central Asia.
"In the long run, the pernicious ideology underpinning the Paris attacks can only be defeated by upholding the foundational values of the French Republic," he said in a statement.
A gathering planned for Friday in front of the Central Mosque in Paris was cancelled after discussions with police.
Additional reporting by Reuters
- More about:
- France
- Paris attacks
- state of emergency
|
|
|
|
COMMENTS
With today's events in Mali, it's painfully obvious that the only way forward is the declaration of the open-ended process of the eradication of the entire Islamofascist edifice in Europe, Middle East and Africa.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave a comment-- or suggestions, particularly of topics and places you'd like to see covered