They have been the target of strong criticism since the disclosure of the identity of the alleged attacker. In Rennes, several associations and political parties mobilized to defend the family of Mohammed M. in 2014. This man, now aged 20, is the main suspect in the stabbing murder of a teacher in the courtyard of a high school in Arras. Monitored by the DGSI and filed S, the alleged assailant of Dominique Bernard should have been expelled from French territory in 2014 when he and his family were subject to an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF). The couple ultimately refused to board the plane and were placed in a detention center. The deportation request was ultimately canceled and the family was released. She had settled in Arras.
In Rennes, where the family was based, the announcement of their expulsion was the subject of significant mobilization. Several collectives such as MRAP, Education Without Borders Network and political parties such as the Communist Party spoke out to defend the family of the accused, who lived at the time in the rural sector of La Guerche-de-Bretagne. “He was a 12-year-old kid, a child. There was no reason to suspect anything,” recalls an activist contacted by 20 minutes.
“It is our role to defend the rights of families”
Since the disclosure of this information, political associations and parties have been the subject of strong criticism. “We don’t have much to say about this story. It is our role to defend the rights of families. The police came to their home to take them away. The children had been taken away. It was shocking, obviously. » The family was transferred to Roissy in a plane specially chartered for the two parents, their three boys and their two girls. When they arrived on the Parisian tarmac, they were finally placed in an administrative detention center before seeing their OQTF lifted. Did local support work in this family’s favor? “I doubt that our mobilization is the reason for the cancellation of the expulsion order,” continues the Rennes activist.
This shortcut was quickly taken by local elected officials from the National Rally who denounced “the responsibility for this new Islamist attack” of the left and the far left in Rennes. The three siblings are now said to have converted to radical Islam. One of the suspect’s brothers was sentenced for relaying Islamist propaganda while the other is in detention for advocating terrorism.