France mulls extension of emergency state for 4 months

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the a draft bill submitted to the parliament include extension of emergency state for four renewable months.

Addressing the National Assembly on Friday, Valls said that hthe emergency powers had enabled police to “destabilize” jihadist networks and thwart a terrorist plot – a reference to the December arrest of a 27-year-old Chechen featured in a video threatening to attack French police, France 24 reported Friday.

Valls claimed the state of emergency was an “efficient and indispensable” tool to tackle the worsening terrorist threat.

He said more than “2,000 French residents are implicated in [jihadist] networks linked to Syria and Iraq”, adding that “the fight against radicalization will be the task of a generation”.

The current three-month state of emergency expires on February 26 and is expected to be extended, giving the government time to adopt the constitutional reform.

But some rights groups believe the measure gives draconian powers to the security services and erodes citizens' rights.

The second major amendment to be debated on Friday – the proposal to strip French-born citizens of their French nationality if they are convicted in terror cases – has sparked protests at home and abroad and led to the resignation of Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, who openly opposed the measure.

Critics say the measure would have little practical effect in dissuading terrorists and would introduce a de jure inequality between citizens who have one nationality and those who have two or more.

The amendment would only apply to the latter group since citizens with a single nationality cannot be made stateless.

Source: MENA