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.
Read also: Time delays: ex-jihadist Kamel Daoudi released
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, 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
”.
Kamel Daoudi's lawyer, Me Étienne 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) Kamel Daoudi constitutes a threat to public order?
»He asks, 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 "
denies him the right to work and to have social relations
": "
what prospects does he have?
He asks.
"
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
".
An Islamist group affiliated with al-Qaida
"
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 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.
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.
He was a member of an Islamist group affiliated with al-Qaida, 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 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.
