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Covid: in detention centers, PCR test "refusals" end up in custody

2021-02-05T16:40:05.892Z


Foreigners not wishing to be tested have been referred and tried, even sentenced to prison. The reason: their refusal emp


Three letters entered in the “nature of the offense” box.

On the police custody register of the 12th arrondissement of Paris, it is marked "PCR".

Three letters that mean "polymerase chain reaction", a medical test carried out using a swab introduced into the nose, which everyone now knows since it allows to detect people carrying Covid-19.

Three small letters which, at the end of last week, sent four foreigners from the administrative detention center (CRA) of Paris-Vincennes (XIIth) in cells and in hearings, sometimes for 48 hours.

Paris (12th century).

The police station regularly sees foreigners who refuse PCR tests go into custody, as this register of January 28 shows.

/ DR  

One of them, a Senegalese, was even referred for an appearance on prior admission of guilt, a procedure otherwise known as “pleading guilty”.

According to our information, he explained to the police that he had been summoned to the infirmary of the detention center without knowing what awaited him.

He therefore refused to go there.

Led to the Paris judicial court, he was therefore tried in immediate appearance.

The judges sentenced him to three months in prison for evading the execution of a deportation measure to the border.

“A sentence that serves as an example, analyzes a lawyer.

It shows those who refuse the tests that you can be sentenced to prison for it.

"

For this offense, he faced three years in prison at the end of the period of detention, a sentence which may be accompanied by a ban from the territory of ten years.

"We must be able to refuse a medical act"

"We note that the placements in police custody of people refusing the test arrive in all the CRAs in France, notes Justine Girard, head of the retention service at Assfam, an association which participates in the reception and integration of migrants.

These are not PCR tests for medical reasons, but to allow removal.

They are carried out at the request of the prosecutor.

“Some countries requiring a PCR test to cross the border, to oppose screening therefore amounts to a refusal to board, already a crime in France before Covid.

“This nevertheless raises questions about the possibility of refusing a medical act,” continues Justine Girard.

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It is this precise point that makes Me Martin Vettes jump, who defended one of the "detainees" of the 12th century police station.

“It is a serious violation of freedoms, judge the lawyer.

We have a reason for placing in custody which is fallacious.

The PCR test is a medical act that is intimate and we must be able to refuse it.

Because these are foreigners in an irregular situation, can we do anything to them?

I wouldn't be surprised if countries demand the vaccination passport that refusing to get vaccinated becomes a criminal offense.

"

"We waste time with these cases", denounces a police officer

This new trend also has the gift of clogging up custody cells, to the chagrin of the police.

"We do the job, but we waste time with these cases," notes an official.

Detainees who refuse the tests do not go to jail and return to the CRA.

And at the same time, you have to deal with all other matters.

However, it is impossible to know how many of them are going through these cells because, officially, this “PCR” offense does not correspond to anything.

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For certain refusals to test, another sanction is considered: an extension of administrative detention by a judge of freedoms and detention (JLD).

A client of Me T. Ernest Akuesson experienced this last November.

Held in the Mesnil-Amelot center (Seine-et-Marne), he openly refuses screening so as not to be sent back to his country.

A JLD of the judicial court of Meaux extends the administrative detention of fifteen days.

The lawyer appealed against this measure.

In Paris, another judge confirmed the order, specifying all the same in passing that the foreigner has the right to oppose the PCR test.

"It is in the name of the inviolability of the human body," explains Me Akuesson.

But it is a rather intractable problem.

"

Source: leparis

All news articles on 2021-02-05

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