the French Lawyers’ Union condemns the prefect’s initiative

These days, as announced by Jacques Witkowski, the prefect of Bas-Rhin, several parents, whose children were arrested during the urban violence that occurred in the last days of December in Strasbourg, have received a letter reminding them of the law . For foreign parents, this is accompanied by a summons under the terms of which the prefect reserves the possibility of re-examining their right to stay.

In a press release entitled “Stop prefectural paternalism”, published this Friday, January 10, the Strasbourg section of the French Lawyers’ Union (SAF) denounces this initiative which, according to the signatories, does not respect the rule of law on several points. According to the SAF, the prefect in particular contravenes the separation of powers by interfering in the powers of the public prosecutor’s office and the juvenile judge.

“The summoning of parents does not fit into any legal framework”

“As the outcome of the criminal proceedings is not known to date, the young people arrested benefit from the presumption of innocence. This principle has clearly been flouted by the prefect of Bas-Rhin who proceeds by announcement effect”, deplores the SAF which notes that the identity and nationality of the minors arrested, like their parents, constitute information normally placed under the seal of secrecy of the investigation.

The SAF is also outraged by the “uninhibited discrimination engaged in by the prefect, in the haste of a communication operation”. The union reminds him that “the summons of parents, under threat and blackmail to revise the right of residence, does not fit into any legal framework […] Only the criminal behavior of the perpetrator is likely to influence the right to stay. In no case does the law provide for transferring onto the parents the possible threat to public order that their minor child would represent.”

Finally, on a more moral and political level this time, the union considers the prefect’s posture “unacceptable”. Intimidating and threatening parents, he writes, “is not thinking collectively to curb a phenomenon which poses a real problem, as the prefect claims to want. […] Its positions fuel the most populist, even racist, sentiments that the SAF tirelessly fights.”