The Riom Court of Appeal in Puy-de-Dôme has ruled on the release of Kamel Daoudi, an Algerian convicted of terrorism and under house arrest since 2008.
Read also: Cantal: the oldest under house arrest in France returns to prison
The court did not rule on the merits of the case, asking the public prosecutor to provide "
factual elements
" to support the house arrest of Daoudi, by a new hearing scheduled for February 24.
However, it decided to release Kamel Daoudi, 45, sentenced in October by the Aurillac Criminal Court to one year in prison for not having respected the conditions of his assignment.
During the hearing before the Court of Appeal on January 27, the prosecution requested confirmation of his sentence to one year in prison.
“
It is a relief for Mr. Daoudi and his family.
The court does not consider as it is that Kamel Daoudi is dangerous, contrary to the unsubstantiated assertions of the Ministry of the Interior, taken as such by the public prosecutor
, ”declared his lawyer Emmanuel Daoud.
"
When magistrates, guardians of individual freedoms, are seized and do their job, the statements of the Ministry of the Interior are not taken at face value and it is comforting for our freedoms
", beyond the case de Daoudi, the advice added.
For Nicolas Krameyer, Liberties manager at Amnesty International, this decision "
is a first step and good news for justice in France.
The court accuses the public prosecutor of not having provided evidence that would attest to the supposed dangerousness of Mr. Daoudi
”, on which his house arrest is based.
Daoudi was arrested at the end of September in an alternative café in Aurillac where he prepared meals and had been imprisoned for not having respected the times of his assignment which imposed a curfew between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m.
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 enterprise
" and stripped of his French nationality.
He was a member of an Islamist group affiliated with Al Qaeda, suspected of planning 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 assigned to successive residences since 2008, an assignment "
in perpetuity
" that he denounces and which made him, according to his supporters, the oldest under house arrest in France.