“I had no right to leave Marseille”: a teacher recounts his house arrest preventing him from going to demonstrations

Several NGOs and lawyers denounce "a level never equaled in France on the question of attacks on freedoms". Dozens of people were placed under house arrest and were unable to demonstrate over the weekend of October 31 and November 1. The Ministry of the Interior issued these orders, based on the provisions of the fight against terrorism, against activists who sometimes have no criminal record and especially without any link to terrorism.

On the evening of Friday October 30, two police officers knocked on the door of a Marseille teacher and made him sign this order. "To summarize, he says, I was not allowed to leave the commune of Marseille this weekend. I was obliged to report to a police station at 3 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday, and I was forbidden to be in places where the demonstration was taking place or places prohibited for demonstrations."

In this document, there are in particular all the elements that the intelligence gathered against him. He participated in environmental activist actions a few years ago. Above all, he was arrested and taken into custody the previous weekend for blocking a traffic point. Furthermore, in his bag, the police found physiological serum and a mask to protect against tear gas. “We have a whole judicial arsenal which is mobilized on things which remain, from my point of view, non-violent actions.”

“These are actions which sometimes, perhaps, go beyond the legality, but which are, for me, legitimate. But in any case which cannot really be linked to terrorist acts.”

A teacher from Marseille

at franceinfo

Activists assimilated to terrorists, denounce lawyers

The lawyers who defend these people under house arrest believe that the Ministry of the Interior equates these activists with terrorists and specify that, if these measures have already been used in recent years, this is the first time that they have been used so massively with the aim of discouraging these demonstrators. “At the time, it perhaps makes you think a little, confides the teacher. But, it’s true that if this way of doing things happens again, I think that I will still continue to demonstrate. It’s not something that will prevent me from demonstrating.”

“I think that the government is not going to succeed in really stopping the social movement with bans such as these.”

A teacher from Marseille

on franceinfo

Bans for which there is very little possible recourse, because in the majority of cases these house arrests are communicated a few hours before the demonstrations. This leaves very little time for administrative justice to take up these cases in summary proceedings.