Paris (AFP)

The restrictions on freedoms imposed by the state of health emergency facing the Covid-19 "are temporary" and the "rule of law is not quarantined", said Keeper of the Seals Nicole Belloubet in a column published on Wednesday in the world.

Under fire from critics of lawyers denouncing a "confinement of the rights of the defense", of jurists and associations worried about the overflow in the common law of a series of derogatory measures, the minister defends the choices of the government in a "totally new" situation.

Considering these concerns "not only legitimate but also healthy, as long as they do not stem from a purely polemical, political, even conspiratorial logic", the minister considers that "they are nevertheless unfounded". "The rule of law is not quarantined," she says.

On March 25, the Keeper of the Seals presented four ordinances, exceptional measures within the framework of the state of health emergency established by the law of March 23, in order to "simplify" the procedures - hearings sometimes by videoconference, behind closed doors, with a single judge, extension of limitation periods ... - and allow the release of "5,000 to 6,000" prisoners from overcrowded French prisons.

"I want to be absolutely clear, stresses Ms. Belloubet: the measures that have been taken are temporary. The law of March 23, 2020 creates a new legal framework to deal with the most serious health disasters. It in no way authorizes case the enactment of lasting rules and decisions beyond what the urgency justifies. "

"Thus, the derogatory measures resulting from these orders will cease at the end of the Covid-19 epidemic and cannot be reactivated when a new epidemic occurs," she insists.

Implemented "without gaiety of heart but without state of mind" in the name of "the general interest", these provisions remain, as the rule of law requires, "under the control of the judge", underlines Nicole Belloubet .

"The Parliament continues to exercise its function of control over the action of the government. The Council of State has not ceased for a single instant to decide urgently on the appeals brought against this action. The criminal judge does his office", she recalls.

"As for the Constitutional Council, which is perfectly possible to seize, it is not deprived of any power either. The legislator has simply allowed that he has, if he wishes, a little more time to judge. Nothing else, "said the minister.

© 2020 AFP