One of the five Afghan refugees, who had been placed under surveillance on his arrival in France, was arrested and taken into police custody in Paris, government spokesman Gabriel Attal confirmed on Tuesday.
The man is part of the entourage of “an Afghan who helped evacuate French people, people who worked for France during the evacuation of the embassy, at a time that was incredibly tense, (and) which probably saved lives, ”Gabriel Attal said on BFMTV. The latter, the main profile monitored, “would have had a link with the Taliban, at a given time, which remains to be defined”, added Gabriel Attal, recalling that “investigations were underway”.
“No loopholes” in the surveillance of repatriated Afghans
The detainee was for his part arrested Monday late afternoon for having broken his “individual measure of administrative control and surveillance” (Micas), said the Paris prosecutor’s office. He only left “a few minutes” from the “area that the DGSI had asked him to keep,” said Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on franceinfo, assuring that there “were no flaws In the surveillance of Afghans repatriated to France.
“We wanted all the Afghans who left Kabul to go through the French military base in Abu Dhabi” to be checked by the French security services, he explained. “We know all the people who arrived on our soil, brought back by the French army,” he added.
Under surveillance
When they arrived in France after being repatriated from Kabul, five Afghans were notified this weekend of a Micas, a measure provided for in the framework of anti-terrorism laws, and are under the supervision of the General Directorate of Internal Surveillance (DGSI) . Among them, the man who “very largely helped in the evacuation of the French embassy”, as Gerald Darmanin explained on Monday.
Born in 1995, he admitted his membership in the Taliban movement and admitted having carried arms as responsible for a Taliban roadblock in Kabul, according to the order taken by the minister. The other four, including the one placed in police custody on Monday, are linked to this man. The government spokesperson assured that the government “will not take risks with the safety of the French”. “All the means are put to control who comes to our soil”, he argued.