The Minister of the Interior had promised “firmness”. A week after the attack in Arras, which cost the life of French teacher Dominique Bernard, Gérald Darmanin stripped a 25-year-old dual national of his French nationality. Born in the Russian Republic of Chechnya, he had been convicted several times for acts linked to terrorism, according to a decree published Friday in the Official Journal.
The young man stripped of his nationality had become French following the naturalization of his mother in 2009, and also has Russian nationality. In legal proceedings, he declared that he had arrived in France with his parents at the age of three.
Sentenced in 2020
The decree, signed by the minister, mentions a nine-year prison sentence handed down against the young man by the Paris Court of Appeal in January 2020 for acts of “participation in a criminal association with a view to preparation of an act of terrorism”, and another conviction, for acts of the same nature but committed while he was a minor, pronounced by the Paris children’s court in March 2019 and confirmed on appeal.
The young man having been convicted “for a crime or misdemeanor constituting an act of terrorism”, and for acts committed within 15 years from the date of acquisition of French nationality, “the conditions allowing [le] deprivation of French nationality must be considered as met,” indicates the decree. “It will be up to the competent authorities to then assess his right to stay on French territory.”
On the evening of the Arras attack, Gérald Darmanin expressed on TF1 his wish to be able to “expel all those who, even at the age of two or three, are foreigners and deserve to return to their country of origin because they do not respect the rules of the Republic.” “We are condemned by the ECHR because I sent Russian and Chechen nationals back to their country, we do it anyway, the protection of the French takes precedence over these rules,” he added.