An eight-year-old schoolboy identified by French media only as “Ahmed” was questioned by police in Nice for at least half an hour on suspicion of “defending terrorism”. The boy’s father was summoned with him and was also interrogated.
The Committee Against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) said the treatment of Ahmed and his father “illustrates the collective hysteria into which France has plunged since early January.” Seventeen people were killed by three Islamist gunmen, who were in turn killed by police, on January 7th, 8th and 9th.
The director of the Flore primary school in Nice filed a complaint with police on January 21st. The boy had refused to participate in a minute's silence in homage to the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, and refused to hold hands with other students in a "circle of solidarity". More than 200 similar incidents were reported in schools across France.
"I'm not Charlie. I'm with the terrorists," the child said. "He admits to having said it, but he doesn't understand what it means," Sefen Guez Guez, the family's lawyer said. "When a policeman asked him what 'terrorism' meant, he couldn't give an answer." Ahmed made the statement during a debate led by the teacher in class, L'Express magazine reported.
Ahmed and his father were questioned on January 28th. In the wake of the Islamist attacks, justice minister Christiane Taubira instructed judges to enforce the November 2014 law which criminalised “defence of terrorism” with zeal. Between the attacks and January 26th, 234 people were charged. Amnesty International has warned that France risks violating freedom of expression.
Commissioner Fabienne Lewandoski, deputy director of police in the Alpes-Maritimes department, told journalists Ahmed also said "All French people have to be killed" and "The journalists [at Charlie Hebdo] deserved to die." Guez Guez denies the child said these things.
The lawyer described Ahmed’s family as Algerians who have lived for 20 years in France. “They have totally integrated the values of the republic,” the lawyer said. “The father was sorry about what his son said.”
The school complained that Ahmed’s father entered the building repeatedly to argue about accusations against his son. Guez Guez says the father was concerned because “since this happened, children ganged up on his son, who locked himself in the toilet at every recess”. Ahmed has stopped attending school.
The version recounted by Guez Guez and the CCIF differs from that of the school and police. The CCIF says Ahmed, who is diabetic, said he was deprived of insulin after the incident. The school director allegedly slapped the child and told him to stop digging in the school sandbox because he “would not find a machine gun to kill us there”.
The CCIF says father and son were interrogated for two hours. Police say it was half an hour. The case has sparked a national debate on the role of teachers, child-protection services and the police, with some commentators saying the police went too far. They were trying “to learn what pushed this child to say such things,” Lewandoski explained. “One may regret that it was done in formal questioning, but given the importance of what he said and the context, it seemed to us we could go further.”
An eight-year-old cannot be convicted, but Lewandoski said Ahmed’s father was under investigation. Child-protection services will interview Ahmed’s two younger sisters regarding possible mistreatment and could place them in foster care. “This child is in danger,” said Eric Ciotti, a conservative deputy in the national assembly and head of the Alpes-Maritimes department.
Guez Guez, the family’s lawyer, has won three symbolic cases against Nice and the surrounding department. In December 2013, the Council of State overturned a decision to refuse to allow a mother wearing a Muslim headscarf to accompany her son’s school outing.
The following month, Guez Guez was able to reinstate full access to restricted areas of Nice airport for a Muslim employee suspected of having been radicalised. Last June, a tribunal suspended Nice mayor Christian Estrosi’s ban on foreign flags down town. Arab immigrants sometimes display the Algerian flag in defiance.
