France to revoke dual citizenship in fighting terrorism

A jihadist plot was foiled last week in the French region of Orleans, southwest of Paris, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Tuesday, as the government prepared constitutional changes to enshrine emergency police powers.

After gunmen and suicide bombers killed 130 in the attacks, President Francois Hollande called for the measures as part of constitutional amendment aimed at stepping up the fight on terrorism.

Under the current state of emergency, authorities have carried out 2,700 house searches without warrant and imposed assigned residency on hundreds of people, restricting their freedom of movement, since the November 13 Paris attacks.

Over 1,000 people have left France to join jihad in Syria and Iraq, and over 3,000 raids have taken place since the Paris attacks, leading to 360 house arrests and 51 people put in jail. ‘We must face up to a war a war against terrorism against jihadism…’ he said.

“The state of emergency, it’s true, justifies certain temporary restrictions on liberties”, Prime Minister Manuel Valls said last month. There are an estimated 3.5 million French people with a second nationality in the country. “They (the bi-nationals convicted of terrorism) will be prosecuted and convicted in France”.

“The Elysée has realised that it will create a schism not just in the Socialist Party but throughout the whole of the left”, MP Benoit Hamon said about the decision to drop the plan, according to The Local.

The government’s proposal came under immediate criticism from human rights groups, including the French antiracism organization MRAP and Amnesty International.

Currently, only naturalised citizens can be stripped of their French citizenship. “Stripping citizenship from people born French, who have belonged to the national community since their birth, raises a substantial problem on a fundamental principle: the right of soil”, Taubira told a radio station in Algeria.

Speaking at the same news conference as Mr Valls, Ms Taubira quashed speculation that she would resign. An environmental activist has already challenged the right to conduct house arrests, although the court ruled yesterday that they were allowed under state of emergency rules.