8 December 2020 incident

The 8 December 2020 incident French: Affaire du 8 décembre 2020 refers to the arrests of nine French citizens who had joined the Kurdish People's Defense Units (YPG) by French authorities in December 2020. Having volunteered to fight with the Kurdish forces against the Islamic State and having returned to France in 2018, they were designated as far-left extremists by the General Directorate for Internal Security and were arrested in a series of raids on 8 December 2020. Seven of the nine were then criminally charged with associations with terrorism. After a few months of detention, however, all except one were released.

Background

Several dozen French citizens have travelled to Syria since 2015 to join Rojava forces in the fight against Islamic extremists Daesh.[1] In September 2019, Mediapart reported that French intelligence had placed a number of those volunteers under surveillance.[2]

Timeline

On 8 December 2020, at six in the morning, the General Directorate for Internal Security (Direction générale de la Sécurité intérieure, or DGSI) and the RAID conducted raids to arrest nine French citizens who had returned from Rojava, in Syria, in 2018. Those nine had all travelled to Rojava to join the YPG to assist in the fight against Daesh.[3] National Centre for Counter Terrorism head Laurent Nuñez claimed that the arrests demonstrated that there was an increased risk of far-left extremism in France.[4]

After being detained for three days, two of the arrested were subsequently released, whereas the other seven (six men and one woman, all in their early 30s) were charged with criminal association with intent to commit terrorist acts. A police source claimed to newspaper Sud Ouest that the arrested were "trying to purchase weapons, were training, and preparing explosives," and that they had vague undefined plans to target "the police or the military."[5][6]

After a few months, however, only one, named Libre Flot and considered by the police as the leader of the group, was still under detention.[7] In late February 2022, he began a hunger strike in protest against the poor conditions and the solitary confinement of his detention.[8][9] In his letter, he stated that it had been "more than 14 months that I’ve been buried alive in a hellish and permanent solitude without having anyone to talk to" and that the director of detentions of the prison he was being held in had told him that his "placement and my maintenance in solitary confinement were decided from the first day by very high ranking people and that whatever I say or [the director of detentions] says or does, nothing will be done about it."[10] After being hospitalised due to the hunger strike, he was conditionally released for health reasons on 7 April.[11][12][13] His trial is due to be heard in 2023.[11]

Controversy

The charges brought against the seven have been controversial, and have been compared to the Tarnac Nine.[12][14][15]

Monde diplomatique journalist Philippe Baqué has stated that none of the objects claimed by the police to be material for explosives seized during the arrests were particularly uncommon or unusual to be owned, and that, as of April 2021, the police have yet to release clear evidence of intent to commit terrorist acts.[16] One of the arrested wrote in Lundi Matin that, contrary to police claims, they had not been an organised group and their detentions were the first time some of them had met.[17]

Isabelle Sommier of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University stated that arrests seemed politically motivated, "to demonstrate that the state is doing something" against recent demonstrations that had broken out in violence.[5]

French digital rights NGO La Quadrature du Net cited this case as an example for the attempt to outlaw the use of encryption.[18]

References
  1. magazine, Le Point (2019-05-17). "Ces jeunes partis combattre l'EI en Syrie qui embarrassent les autorités françaises". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  2. Suc, Matthieu; Massey, Jacques. "Ces revenants du Rojava qui inquiètent les services de renseignement". Mediapart (in French). Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  3. "Syrie, SDF, fiché S : l'inquiétant profil du chef du groupe d'ultragauche". Le Point (in French). 2020-12-13. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  4. Chichizola, Jean (13 January 2021). "Laurent Nuñez: «Avec 170 sabotages perpétrés depuis mars 2020, l'ultragauche monte en puissance»". Le Figaro. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  5. "La "menace" de l'ultragauche de retour en pleine lumière". Sud Ouest (in French). 2020-12-16. ISSN 1760-6454. Retrieved 2022-04-11.
  6. Zemouri, Aziz (14 December 2020). "Ultragauche : le profil hors norme des hommes interpellés par la DGSI". Le Point. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  7. Chartrain, Olivier (1 April 2022). "L'homme du jour. Libre Flot". l'Humanité. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  8. "France: Hunger striker Libre Flot hospitalised". Freedom News. 26 March 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  9. "Détenu d'ultragauche en grève de la faim : ses avocats tirent la sonnette d'alarme". Le Parisien. 31 March 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  10. "Why I'm on Hunger Strike — Libre Flot". Kurdistan Solidarity Network. 11 March 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  11. Jequier-Zalc, Pierre. "Après 37 jours de grève de la faim, le militant détenu en isolement Libre Flot a été libéré". Basta! (in French). Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  12. "Pour le droit de se défendre dans la dignité face à la justice antiterroriste. Soutien à Libre Flot en grève de la faim | Le Média". www.lemediatv.fr. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  13. "Un détenu d'ultragauche en grève de la faim libéré pour motif médical". Le Figaro (in French). 2022-04-07. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  14. "Saint-Brieuc. Un rassemblement en soutien à Libre Flot a eu lieu samedi midi". Ouest France. 10 April 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  15. "Pour le droit de se défendre dans la dignité face à la justice antiterroriste". Lundi Matin. 21 March 2022. Retrieved 24 June 2022.
  16. Baqué, Philippe (2021-04-01). "Combattre les djihadistes, un crime ?". Le Monde diplomatique (in French). Retrieved 2022-04-15.
  17. "Affaire du 8 décembre : récit d'une mise en examen pour association de malfaiteurs terroriste - " Ce qu'on nous reproche ? Une sorte de fantasme construit autour de nos opinions politiques. "". lundimatin. Retrieved 2022-04-08.
  18. "Criminalization of encryption : the 8 december case". La Quadrature du Net. 2023-06-05. Retrieved 2023-06-05.
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