France Ignores ECHR Ruling for First Time to Deport Suspected Jihadist

The French government has ignored a decision by the European Court of Human Rights for the very first time and deported an Uzbek national with links to terror organizations back to his home country.

French newspaper Le Monde reported on Friday that the 39-year-old migrant had been expelled from France on Nov. 14, despite Europe’s top human rights court ruling against the Interior Ministry due to a perceived risk of torture upon his return to Uzbekistan.

“It’s a turning point,” noted Lucie Simon, the immigration lawyer for Mr. A. “The Interior Ministry is deliberately violating a Court ruling that applies to France,” she added.

French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin remained defiant in the decision taken by his department, insisting that the migrant was “known to the police for his roots in the pro-jihadist movement” and was therefore returned to his country of origin after spending some time in a detention center in Val-de-Marne.

Darmanin insisted in the wake of the Arras terror attack, during which a Chechen Islamist stabbed to death school teacher Dominique Bernard on Oct. 13, that the French government would ramp up deportations of suspected jihadists.

Darmanin’s office reportedly told French news outlet Mediapart on Friday it had increased deportations by 30 percent since the attack compared to the rest of the year.

In an interview with Journal du Dimanche on Oct. 22, Darmanin said that the security of French citizens would take precedence over the human rights of suspected jihadists.

“What I assume is not to wait for the decision taken by the European Court of Human Rights when the administrative court, the Court of Appeal, and the Council of State have ruled in favor of the State,” he said.