French minister vows to 'protect the French' after student rape and murder

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00:00France's conservative interior minister is promising tougher rules to, in his words,

00:04protect the French after a Moroccan man suspected of raping and murdering a 19-year-old woman,

00:09then dumping her body in a Paris park, was tracked down and arrested in Switzerland.

00:14Prosecutors say the suspect has previous convictions for

00:17a rape and also an expulsion order. Here at France 24, Emmald Maxwell with this.

00:23On top of the sadness at Paris Dauphine University, there's anger.

00:33We have a justice system that doesn't work. The suspect had an expulsion order,

00:37he was supposed to leave France, but instead he was casually wandering around Paris.

00:42It's not normal that a man who should have been under house arrest was allowed out.

00:47The law wasn't respected.

00:49The rape and killing of 19-year-old student Philippine,

00:52and the fact that the suspect, Taha O, was supposed to be deported and wasn't,

00:57has inflamed political tensions in France, where the new right-wing government plans to crack down

01:02on immigration. France's new interior minister, who has vowed to boost law and order,

01:08said the country's legal arsenal needed to develop to protect the French.

01:13So what went wrong in this case? Convicted for a rape committed in 2019 when he was a minor,

01:19Taha O was sentenced to seven years in prison and expulsion at the end of it.

01:24But he was released in June, then placed in administrative detention,

01:28while the French authorities issued a request for a consular pass to Morocco.

01:33It finally came through in early September, by which time a judge had freed Taha O,

01:38on condition he reported regularly to the authorities.

01:43It's quite surprising, because he hadn't been in the detention centre for the maximum of 90 days

01:48yet. So we should really ask what reason the judge gave in order to release him.

01:54Just before the student's murder, the suspect had been placed on a wanted list

01:58because he'd flouted the conditions of his release.

02:01France routinely issues deportation orders, but only around 7% of them are enforced,

02:07compared to 30% across the European Union.

02:10Tragic case, Admiral Maxwell there. Andrew Hillier joins us for more on the situation.

02:16What's the latest, Andrew?

02:17Yeah, Mark, this is a case that has sent huge shockwaves throughout France,

02:21comes at a crucial time, just after the formation of that new government.

02:24Even earlier today, we heard from a French magistrate's union,

02:29issuing, publishing an open letter in which they deplored the fact that this debate had taken such

02:33a, they said, xenophobic turn. They singled out Bruno Retailleur, France's new conservative

02:39interior minister, for the way he criticised the French justice system.

02:45And the other thing this case has done, Mark, is really kind of put the spotlight on the

02:49ongoing tug of war we've seen this week between, on the one hand,

02:52Retailleur in the interior ministry from the right, and Didier Migaud, who's the new justice

02:58minister, the only figure in Michel Barnier's cabinet who is from the left.

03:03So Didier Migaud, earlier this week, defending the judiciary,

03:09responding to Retailleur saying that the French judiciary is independent.

03:15Then Retailleur hit back at Didier Migaud. He said that, okay, the French judiciary is

03:21independent, but French parliament, which embodies the will of the French people, is sovereign.

03:25So we've seen this, you know, this back and forth between the two men.

03:28It all kind of came to a head today when both men were received by Michel Barnier at Matignon,

03:34that's the French prime minister's official residence.

03:36Matignon insists that neither of the ministers was reprimanded.

03:42However, it's not a good look for Michel Barnier in this first week of his new government.

03:46Indeed, one can't begin to imagine what the family of the victim are feeling with all this

03:52swirling round. Break down for us, Andrew, the figures on expulsion orders.

03:58Okay, Mark. So this expulsion order, it's known by its French acronym as an OQTF.

04:04Now in English, that's the Obligation to Leave French Territory.

04:07So I'm going to break down the figures for you.

04:08Now, the suspect was subject to one of these orders.

04:10And in the first three months of this year, France ordered the expulsion of more than

04:1534,000 non-EU nationals.

04:18That's nearly a third of the total across the entire EU.

04:21Compare that to the next two countries on the list, Germany and Belgium.

04:24So a huge figure there.

04:26And the reason I'm showing you these figures, Mark, is that France has come under criticism

04:30for following through with less than 10% of these orders.

04:36But let me show you the next set of figures.

04:37Because if you actually put those figures into context, you can see that even though

04:41France carries out a small proportion of actual expulsion orders, it still carries out more

04:47expulsions than any other EU state, more than Germany, more than Sweden.

04:52So, you know, the next question you may ask, Mark, is why is it so hard for France to carry

04:56out these deportations?

04:58Well, there are many reasons.

05:00Sometimes it's down to bureaucracy.

05:01Other times it's often down to diplomatic rouse.

05:04Sometimes there's a reluctance from some countries to accept the return of people who have criminal

05:11convictions.

05:12In this particular case, it appears that French authorities contacted their Moroccan counterparts.

05:16They didn't get a response.

05:18So it would appear that French authorities never received a consular pass from Morocco,

05:24which is what is needed for the removal of a person without a passport.

05:28Now, you hinted at the political action a little earlier.

05:30The far right in France, one might imagine, making a political headway out of this one.

05:36Yeah, I mean, as you may expect, indeed, the far right has jumped on this case.

05:41The leader of the National Rally, Jordan Bardella, saying Tuesday that the government was far

05:46too lax.

05:47The big issue here is that the National Rally has a lot of leverage over the government,

05:52because if there were to be a no-confidence vote tabled by the left, for example, the

05:56National Rally could have the votes to bring down the government.

06:00So, you know, the far right has already alluded to another case, a case that happened two

06:05years ago, the killing of 12-year-old Lola here in Paris.

06:10The suspected killer in that case was an Algerian national who had stayed in France on an

06:17expired student visa.

06:19Now, back then, the far right organised protests and tried to conflate the issue, making it

06:25about illegal immigration in general.

06:28So the concern this time round is that, you know, the far right may weaponise this case

06:34to push an anti-migrant agenda, capitalising on the leverage that it has over the French

06:39government.

06:41Thank you very much indeed for giving us some more of the context of this case, which is

06:45horrific, just on the basic facts of what has happened.

06:48Our hearts go out to the family of the victim, but it's causing great political upheaval

06:54here in France as well.

06:55We'll continue to follow.

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