The images captured by two CCTV cameras show a scene of incredible violence. Beaten, strangled with such anger that the doctors noticed a sinking of the trachea, then suffocated for very long minutes with a plastic bag. It was nearly a year ago, the latest terrorist attack in France. On March 2, 2022, behind the high walls of Arles prison, the Corsican separatist Yvan Colonna was seriously injured – he died a few weeks later – by a fellow prisoner, Franck Elong Abé. In police custody, the man explains bluntly that he wanted to “respond” to “blasphemy”.
While the personality of the victim and the location of the attack made this case emblematic, it also illustrates an increasingly significant fear of the police and judicial authorities: that of the recidivism of “TIS” detainees, i.e. say convicted in cases of Islamist terrorism. At the time of the events, Franck Elong Abé was serving a nine-year prison sentence for having gone to jihad in Afghanistan. And his case is not unique. In 2016, Bilal Taghi, sentenced for trying to join Syria, tried to assassinate two prison guards in Osny with a blade made in his cell. “Here, I’m making my debut in prison, but soon, it will be outside,” he boasted, nine days after the fact, to other inmates.
A hundred “leavers” in 2022, probably as many in 2023
“If they carry out an attack inside a prison, why shouldn’t they do it outside, when they come out? “Asks a high-ranking police source. And to insist: “The most determined profiles strike where they have the opportunity. Now, the number of “leavers” – as men and women convicted of terrorism offenses are nicknamed and released after serving their sentence – is greater than that of “inners”. They were 78 last year. A figure that rises to 97 if we take into account the defendants released pending trial. They will be more or less the same in 2023, according to intelligence service estimates.
Over the past four years, nearly 350 TIS detainees have been released in France. The majority were sentenced for leaving for Syria between 2013 and 2015. At the time, these departures were the responsibility of the criminal court and the sentences often varied between five and eight years in prison. “There was a real turning point in 2016 when these departures were criminalized. The sentences have almost doubled, ”analyzes a judicial source. And these outings are not ready to stop in the next few years. According to the prison administration, 417 TIS detainees and 550 common law detainees reported for radicalization are still behind bars. “For the moment, few individuals sentenced for their participation in terrorist acts on the territory have come out, but that will come”, we assure the management of Uclat, the coordination unit of the fight counterterrorism.
“A significant ideological anchorage”
This unit, attached to the DGSI, is notably responsible for ensuring that no “TIS” detainee is released without follow-up. Each month, they therefore review, with representatives of the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office and the various intelligence services, the upcoming releases. The course, behavior in prison, projects are examined to assess the degree of surveillance to be put in place. An intelligence service is then appointed to track these former detainees. “The most difficult are the profiles who say they are disengaged but who are not completely. Hence the need for an evaluation that lasts over time, ”insist the head of Uclat and her deputy.
Four-fifths of “TIS” dischargers are followed, on their release from detention, for their radicalization. “Those who are still obsessed with violent action are in the minority, they develop. On the other hand, most remain in an ideological anchoring sufficiently strong for the services to consider that a follow-up is necessary. » About a third are subject to judicial monitoring: electronic bracelet, security measures, psychological monitoring or obligation to train… Those who are not, or those for whom it is considered that judicial monitoring is insufficient, may fall under the blow of an administrative measure, a Micas. This imposes, for example, a check-in at the police station, a ban on moving around, meeting certain people. And this, for a maximum period of 12 months.
“Many have the feeling of a double punishment”
Thus, according to the intelligence services, 90% of former “TIS” are subject to a judicial or administrative measure upon their release. But how to reintegrate, train, find a job, when you sometimes have to clock in twice a day? And even for those who succeed, meeting these obligations sometimes turns into a headache. “I quickly found a job, which was also one of the conditions of my legal follow-up, confides a former “TIS”. The problem is that I was sometimes led, in this context, to go to the neighboring department. Now, that was forbidden to him. On several occasions, however, he took this risk before his follow-up was finally adapted.
“The state’s concern is legitimate, but we apply the same scheme for everyone when there is a galaxy of profiles”, insists lawyer Vincent Brengarth. And to cite the case of this man sentenced to four years in prison. Since then he has served his sentence, worked, built a family. However, this binational has just been stripped of his nationality. “It’s a double jeopardy. Inevitably, it is difficult to see the meaning of certain measures, it creates a feeling of arbitrariness, ”insists the lawyer, who denounces the lack of individualization of monitoring and the systematic nature of these measures. At Uclat, we deny it and we ensure that it is adapted according to the profiles and regularly reviewed. “Given the very large number of individuals monitored, we have to make a prioritization. If there is no sign of radicalization or dangerousness, the means committed are redeployed. »
A “very marginal” recidivism rate
Still, the number of “leavers” implicated in new terrorism cases is “very marginal”: “a few units” only out of the 39 attacks foiled since 2017, including three in 2022. Like this young man suspected of having participated, in 2019, in the preparation of a firearm attack on the territory. And this, while he was serving a sentence in a semi-open environment after being convicted, when he was a minor, for terrorist criminal association.
“We have very few cases of recidivism among the outgoing and when this is the case, it is rather a matter of common law facts. We also have a few cases of leavers who return to detention because they have not complied with their follow-up measures, ”we note to the management of Uclat. This is the whole dilemma: if these recurrences are so marginal, is it thanks to the follow-up undertaken or because these TIS have broken with part of their past?