Security has been tightened at France's biggest Christmas market in Strasbourg, following the attack on a market in Germany last week in which five people died and 200 were injured. Authorities have also extended the use of a surveillance measure used at during the Paris Olympics to monitor a dozen individuals, many of whom have no previous criminal records.
Security at the Christmas market in Strasbourg - France’s oldest and biggest, attracting some three million visitors last year - has been strict each year since 2018 after a gunman who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State armed group killed five people and wounded 11 others.
Measures have been reinforced since the deadly car-ramming attack at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, north-eastern Germany, on Friday.
Every single bag is searched and the few vehicles allowed in the market are carefully inspected.
Anti-terror law applied
Authorities have also been monitoring at least a dozen people using an anti-terror law used during Paris Olympic Games this summer, according to the Reuters news agency, which identified at least 12 cases of people being monitored during the Strasbourg market.
The measures, known by the French acronym Micas, were authorised by a 2017 anti-terror law that allows police to strictly limit the movements of individuals.
The legislation was part of a toughening of French security laws in response to deadly attacks and a growing political threat from the far right, and until recently, it was mainly used to monitor people after prison sentences.
But according to Reuters, of the 12 people monitored during the Strasbourg market, at least 10 had no terror-related convictions, although one person had been barred from the market before.
Expanding surveillance
During the Paris Olympics, which also saw a trial of AI-driven monitoring, at least 547 people were placed under an individual measure of administrative control and surveillance, according to a parliamentary report.
Some had never faced criminal charges. Lawyers and activists are concerned that the wider use of Micas could become the norm for other major public events.
An intelligence source, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said in November that Micas orders had proven effective during the Olympics, and authorities would take the same no-risk approach toward those who might target Christmas markets.
As the use of Micas orders has increased, challenges to them have also become more successful, perhaps because the profile of those targeted has been expanded.
As of November, judges across the country had cancelled or suspended 50 Olympics-related Micas orders, or about 9 percent, according to the parliamentary report.
There have also been at least five successful appeals against measures issued for the Christmas market, according to records from the Strasbourg court.
In the first five years after the orders were introduced, 13 out of 1,203 orders were successfully appealed, according to the interior ministry's 2023 report.
(with Reuters)
