Rights group threatens legal action against French govt body

By Feiza Ben Mohamed

NICE, France (AA) – A French voluntary group Cage is contemplating legal action against the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR) for attacking the group and linking it with radical elements.

It said the group has been allegedly targeted for exposing state-sanctioned Islamophobia.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Rayan Freschi, Cage's lawyer said the non-governmental organization (NGO) was studying the possibility of “legal action” even though no “decision has been taken” at this stage.

“We are targeted because we are exposing the international scene of the systematic obstruction of Islam sanctioned by the government since Feb. 2018,” said the lawyer.

He stressed that, in its latest report published in March, the NGO highlighted that the “draconian public policy is nothing but an Islamophobic persecution sanctioned by the French state”.

The lawyer condemned CIPDR for putting out a series of tweets on social media on Wednesday, linking the NGO Cage with several figures it considers radical.

“The government cannot afford to watch the state image associated with the persecution of religious minorities. That way they try to terrorize us in different ways such as through systematic obstruction and to cast doubt on our organization,” said Freschi.

He also noted that the government is using a well-known technique of “discrediting the messenger to stifle the message”.

Cage described France as the sponsor of “state-sanctioned persecution against Muslims” in its report published in March.

“The life of Muslims in France over the past five years has been nothing but a series of burning injustices and bitter indignities,” the NGO said.

According to Cage officials, they are aiming at to "empower populations impacted by the war on terror”.

The NGO claims that it fights against the excesses of certain states in the domain of public freedoms.

Translated by James Tasamba in Kigali, Rwanda