Paris (AFP)

The Collective against Islamophobia in France (CCIF) will challenge before the Council of State its dissolution by the government after the death of Samuel Paty, denouncing a "political" measure decreed when he had "not the slightest report with this case, "his lawyer announced on Friday.

"The CCIF will go to the Council of State to show that this dissolution is an abuse of power by Mr. Darmanin, exploited for political ends because the CCIF, like other organizations, has criticized the government's policy and its tendency to restrict freedoms ", Me Sefen Guez Guez told AFP.

The dissolution of the CCIF, which identifies Islamophobic acts and provides legal and psychological assistance to people who are victims of discrimination, was announced by the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin in the wake of the beheading, on October 16, of Samuel Paty.

Mr. Darmanin described the CCIF as an "Islamist pharmacy" working "against the Republic" and against which it was necessary "to stop being naïve".

Even before the dissolution, enacted Wednesday in the Council of Ministers, the CCIF had announced that it had dissolved itself and redeployed activities abroad.

The CCIF was dissolved while it has "no connection with the death of Mr. Paty" and had "responded point by point" to the "fallacious and defamatory" reasons exposed by the government, regrets Me Guez Guez.

"The CCIF has never been condemned, incriminated or questioned by justice, which proves that it is a purely political dissolution, used by Mr. Darmanin to convey his message to all those who would contest its practices and its action, ”he said.

The CCIF lodged a complaint against the minister with the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) for having declared that the association was "directly linked" to the assassination of Mr. Paty, an assertion which has not been substantiated since.

These "slanders" have made the CCIF "a scapegoat" and its members "targets subject to reprisals", denounces Me Guez Guez.

Besides the CCIF, two other structures accused by the government of proximity to radical Islam were dissolved after the death of Mr. Paty: the NGO BarakaCity and the collective "Cheik Yassine".

© 2020 AFP