To eradicate terrorism, France approves new anti-terror law to end state-of-emergency

Paris, October 4: Looking at the increase of terror attacks in European countries, France lower house of Parliament has approved a new anti-terrorism law intended to bring an end to a nearly 2-year long state of emergency. Several of the measures put in place under the state-of-emergency declared after the 2015 Paris attacks will now be made permanent.

 

The law will incorporate several measures first authorised under the emergency arrangement. They include easier searches of homes and confining individuals to their home towns, without judicial approval.

The bill will become law before the start of November when the state of emergency will finally end. Under the law, authorities are allowed to shut down mosques or other places of worship if preachers are suspected of spreading radical ideas and theories. Suspected jihadist sympathisers can also be confined to their neighbourhoods without the approval of a judge.

The bill was approved by 415 votes to 127 on its first reading in the lower house of the French parliament, having already been passed by the upper house in July. France has several laws aimed at tackling terror since 2012, some of which attracted contentious discussions. 

Interior Minister Gerard Collomb told Parliament that France was still in a “state of war” and the threat level remains “high”. 

In France, 241 people have been killed in terror attacks since January 2015 - with 130 of those deaths occurring during the Paris attacks in November 2015. A state of emergency was declared after those attacks, and was subsequently extended several times to protect major sporting events and this year's elections. The government assures that it has helped prevent 12 planned attacks this year alone.