Europe 1 with AFP 16:00 pm, September 08, 2023

A father was released from custody Friday in Clermont-Ferrand, accused of making death threats against a principal who refused access to high school to his daughter wearing an abaya, for which he will have to answer in court.

The man is prosecuted for "threat to intimidate a person in charge of a public service mission," said AFP the prosecutor of the Republic of Clermont-Ferrand, Dominique Puechmaille, confirming information from the regional daily La Montagne.

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"The reported terms mention a threat of throat cutting, tells him that he did not quite say that," said the magistrate. The custody of the 44-year-old father, started Thursday, was lifted on Friday. Placed under judicial control with social monitoring, he is summoned before the criminal court at the end of October, said the prosecutor.

"Threats that are extremely shocking"

He is also forbidden to contact the victims and to present himself near any school in Puy-de-Dôme. Thursday morning, the officials of the Ambroise-Brugière high school filtered the entry into force of the national directives concerning the prohibition of the abaya. A high school student who was wearing the garment was asked to remove it and was denied access to the school after she refused, according to the same source.

A little later, his father phoned the high school and had in turn an agent and then a senior education advisor. To each of them, he allegedly made death threats aimed at the headmaster.

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"These are threats that are extremely shocking. I had the principal on the phone yesterday. I obviously assured him of all my support, that of the government, the State and more generally, I believe, of our fellow citizens in the face of these threats that are inadmissible and unspeakable, "said the Minister of National Education Gabriel Attal at the inauguration of a new high school near Lyon.

He said that the targeted principal would benefit from "constant support in terms of security: the national police will be at his side", but also legal support.

Enhanced security

"The teams of the high school who applied the law by refusing the entry of a student in abaya received death threats and beheading," also lamented, at his side, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Region Laurent Wauquiez. This "shows how unwavering our determination and firmness must be," he added.

He said he had deployed in this high school regional security teams formed "to ensure the security of the establishment, agents, high school students". On August 27, Gabriel Attal announced a ban on the wearing of abaya in public schools, colleges and high schools.

On Thursday, the Council of State validated the ban on this long covering dress, carrying according to him a "logic of religious affirmation" prohibited in schools. The judge urgently rejected the appeal of the association Action droits des musulmans (ADM), which requested the suspension of this ban on the grounds of a risk of discrimination and infringement of rights.

On Monday, some 300 students, out of the 12 million who returned this week, presented themselves in abaya in front of their school, and 67 of them refused to withdraw it, according to the Minister of Education.