The Riom Court of Appeal (Puy-de-Dôme) reserved its decision until May 12 concerning Kamel Daoudi, the oldest under house arrest in France, sentenced for not having respected the conditions of his subpoena.
During the hearing before the court on Wednesday, the Advocate General demanded confirmation of his sentence to one year in prison handed down at first instance in Aurillac (Cantal), where he was under house arrest.
Stressing that Kamel Daoudi had violated “ten times” his subpoena obligations in August and September 2020, he considered that the sentence was “totally justified”.
"14,000 scores in thirteen years"
Mr. Daoudi's lawyer, Me Etienne de Castelbajac, pleaded for the release and contested the legality of the house arrest: "In what way, in 2018 (date of one of the house arrest orders) Mr. Daoudi constitutes a threat to public order?
He asked, denouncing the lack of elements put forward by the Ministry of the Interior and the public prosecutor.
He recalled that his client had carried out "14,000 clockings in 13 years" and deplored that the administration "refused him the right to work and to have social relations": "what prospects does he have?
He asked.
"I try to comply as much as possible with all these constraints, which are not easy", testified at the bar Kamel Daoudi, imposing build, glasses, calm voice, recognizing however "shortcomings".
"My wife, my children and I are tired of this situation," he added, referring to the journeys of his family, who live two hours away from his place of assignment, to visit him on weekends. end.
Kamel Daoudi was arrested at the end of September 2020 in an alternative café in Aurillac where he was preparing meals for not having respected the times of his assignment which imposed a curfew between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Member of a group affiliated with Al-Qaeda, he served his sentence
In 2005, the man was sentenced on appeal to six years in prison and a definitive ban on the territory for "criminal association in connection with a terrorist company" and stripped of his French nationality.
Morning essentials newsletter
A tour of the news to start the day
Subscribe to the newsletterAll newsletters
He was a member of an Islamist group affiliated with Al-Qaeda, suspected of having prepared an attack on the United States embassy in Paris.
Banned from territory, he cannot however be deported to Algeria in view of the risks of torture incurred.
He has therefore remained under house arrest since 2008, a “life sentence” that he denounces and which, according to his supporters, made him the oldest under house arrest in France.
