Islamic terrorism creating pressure on France judiciary by causing increased terror cases in the country

NewsBharati    26-Oct-2017
Total Views |

Paris, October 26: The recent timeline of terror attacks in France is not very relieving for the country. In recent years, horrible terror attacks took place in each year. Since 2014 the graph experience sharp increase. The statistics of killed victims in last three years will definitely give a shock as almost 250 people lost their lives in last three years. Now the workload has increased so much to prevent the further attack that the system demands more staffs.

The officials from Justice and Intelligence also think that more staffs are needed for work. With the surge in terrorism, the efforts to prevent it are also increasing. Hence investigators and law courts to keep their piled work going demands further staffing. In this situation, ensuring security for common man should not be compromised by any means. The workload of the anti-terrorism justice system has become 10 times better in last 5 years.

If we go year wise data, 2012 is considered as a turning point in the story. This year had 10 cases of suspected terrorist activity. Islamist militant Mohammad Merah, a French citizen of Algerian extraction killed three Jewish schoolchildren and three soldiers near Toulouse. He was killed later during a lengthy police siege at his flat in Toulouse. In 2013 also a convert to Islam tried to kill a soldier by stabbing though he hopefully failed.

Following at least 8 major attacks, the graph reached its peak when in 2015 Gunmen and suicide bombers hit a concert hall, a major stadium, restaurants, and bars, almost simultaneously. This incident left 130 people. Hence the cases piled up to 621 in 2017. Though the number of counter-terrorist investigators at the Paris prosecutor’s office has doubled since 2012 the number 14 is not satisfactory and enough. The total number of investigating magistrates and judges is now 11.

“We are not at breaking point, but the question now is how long it can last like that,” said Pascal Gastineau, head of the French Association of Investigating Magistrates. “For affairs dating to 2016, a trial will not take place before 2018-2019,” said one judge which can be easily regarded as the reason why the system needs more judges. Even to make the punishment heavier for convicts in such cases professional magistrate or jury is important.