France’s top court has ruled that France must ensure the return of an Uzbek man who was illegally deported last month. The decision runs counter to the Interior ministry’s vow to deport those it considers to be dangerous foreigners.
The Council of state on Friday ordered the Interior and Foreign Affairs ministries to take “all useful measures” to return the man, saying his deportation violated a provisionary ruling by the European court of human rights (ECHR).
The Interior ministry considers the 39-year-old, identified as M.A., as a dangerous radical Islamist, and ordered his deportation to Uzbekistan on 13 October, the day a radicalised Russian-born young man stabbed a teacher to death in northern France.
Following the attack, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin had promised to deport dangerous foreigners, and subsequently hardened provisions in the government's immigration reform bill, that ended up being rejected.
M.A.'s aslyum request was denied in December 2021 and had been living under house arrest since March 2022, though he was never tried or even interrogated for his alleged radicalisation.
A 2022 ruling from the ECHR determined he could not be sent back to Uzbekistan because he faced torture there.
After losing appeals, on 16 November he was put on a plane, and sent to Uzbekistan, where he was immediately arrested and detained.
Risk of prison in Uzbekistan
Currently "in a cramped cell with several other detainees", M.A. faces being sentenced to prison for political reasons, the Council of state warned, calling on the administration to issue a provisional authorisation to return while it reexamines his case.
The Council of state ruling, which is a demand and not an order, calls for his measures to be taken for M.A. to be returned to France “as soon as possible”, and the government must foot the bill.
The decision is a “snub” to the Interior ministry, his lawyer, Lucie Simon, told the Le Parisien newspaper, pointing out that her client “has never been convicted, or even brought in for questioning, for terrorist acts”.
She said the Council of state’s decision is a reminder that the ministry cannot deport someone in violation of an ECHR ruling.
France has twice before been condemned for having deported foreigners without allowing them legal recourse, in 2018, but it had never before ignored an ECHR ruling forbidding a deportation.
(with newswires)
