Policeman suspended for radicalization: Castaner under investigation for discrimination

July 20, 2022

The Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) opened on July 6 a judicial investigation for discrimination on grounds of religion against the former Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner, after the complaint of a police officer suspended for suspicion of radicalization , we learned on Tuesday from sources close to the investigation.

Police captain Hervé C., 42, had filed a complaint on November 17 for discrimination on the basis of religious affiliation and moral harassment with the CJR, the only court authorized to prosecute members of the government for offenses committed in the exercise of their functions.

After analysis, the CJR’s requests commission, which has the role of filter, transmitted this complaint to the public prosecutor and a judicial investigation was opened, confirmed the CJR to AFP.

“This is an essential first step in the manifestation of the truth”, reacted to AFP the lawyers of the police officer Mes Hélène Jouny and Anass Khafif.

“Our client has full confidence in the independent justice of his country to restore him to his rights and his honor,” they added.

Hervé C., a convert to Islam, was working at the National Automated File for Authors of Terrorist Offenses (FIJAIT) at the Paris judicial police when he was reported as potentially radicalized on October 6 and 7, 2019.

A few days earlier, Mickaël Harpon, a computer scientist at the police headquarters converted to Islam, had stabbed four of his colleagues to death before being shot.

Suspended by the Ministry of the Interior on October 28, 2019, Hervé C. had been reinstated on February 28, 2020, but transferred as head of the tax fraud and VAT group.

In his complaint, the police officer considers that the ministerial suspension order is “discriminatory” because of his religion and his transfer reflected “the refusal of the Minister of the Interior to leave a person of Muslim faith in charge of FIJAIT”, while he showed “no signs of radicalization” and had received “excellent ratings”.

It is based in particular on an investigation by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN) which concluded, on June 8, 2020, to “no breach” or “no proselytism”.

Before the administrative court in June 2021, seized by the police officer to challenge the measures taken, the Ministry of the Interior had nevertheless justified its decisions by “a radical religious practice, incompatible with the life of the unit and beyond even with the secular requirements of its republican and public service missions”.

The administrative court canceled all the measures in February, but the Ministry of the Interior appealed this decision, said Mr. Khafif.