The Ministry of Justice acknowledged the existence of this file on Monday in court, presenting it as a simple ” management tool “while several associations denounced a “political record”. The Lille administrative court ruled in favor of the latter on Friday, May 19, ordering the Minister of Justice and the Lille prosecutor’s office to erase the personal data of demonstrators detained during the mobilization against the pension reform, according to its decision consulted by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
The court had been seized of two applications for interim relief filed by the Association for the Defense of Constitutional Liberties (Adelico) and the Syndicate of Lawyers of France (SAF) as well as by the League of Human Rights (LDH), after the publication of an article by Mediapart denouncing such filing. It also ordered the State to pay a global sum of 3,000 euros to the applicants.
In his decision, the judge in chambers “believes that the creation by the Lille public prosecutor’s office, outside of any regulatory framework, of a file listing the surname, first name and date of birth of each demonstrator placed in police custody during the demonstrations against the pension reform , as well as the criminal consequences given, seriously and manifestly illegally violates the right to respect for the privacy of the persons concerned and orders the erasure of the personal data it contains.summarizes a press release issued by the court.
The lawyer for Adelico and SAF, Jean-Baptiste Soufron, welcomed Friday to AFP a decision “extremely important”rejoicing that “the administrative tribunal has been able to fully play its role of reviewing government decisions”.
“This is a real wake-up call”
“It turned out that a political file was compiled by the Lille prosecutor’s office on the instructions of the Ministry of Justice”he underlined, lamenting that “the government, for several months, has been chaining illegal decisions”. “This is clearly a real call to order”welcomed the lawyer of the LDH, Marion Ogier.
Appointed “Monitoring of criminal proceedings – pension reform movement”, the file in question is an Excel spreadsheet detailing the surname, first name, date of birth of the people placed in police custody during the demonstrations against the pension reform in Lille, and the criminal consequences given to their arrest. According to the LDH, it was formed on March 17, following the hardening of the mobilization after the recourse to 49.3 by the government before the National Assembly.
At the hearing on Monday, a representative of the Ministry of Justice assured that this file was authorized by the decree governing the Cassiopée database, which brings together in secure software the data of defendants, victims or witnesses of legal proceedings of the last ten years. A simple management tool, it “allows the management of a particular event” with a strong “volume of police custody”added another representative, referring to the existence of other files of this type in other cities.
Asked by AFP, the Lille prosecutor’s office and the justice ministry did not react immediately.