One of the halls of the European Court of Human Rights (Reuters)
Two non-governmental organizations filed a complaint before the European Court of Human Rights against France, for its responsibility for the military operation that allowed Egypt to use French intelligence information to kill civilians, as the Disclose website revealed Thursday.
The Disclose website reported in an article published in November 2021 that Cairo diverted the use of information provided to it by France under the slogan of combating terrorism, and used it to carry out air strikes on vehicles suspected of belonging to smugglers on the Egyptian-Libyan border.
According to documents obtained by Disclose, “French forces may have been involved in at least 19 bombing operations on civilians between 2016 and 2018” in this region.
Despite concerns and warnings from some officials about the operation taking another direction, the French authorities have not reconsidered the mission, according to what was reported by the Disclose website, citing confidential documents.
Following the publication of the report, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces filed a complaint for “violating national defense secrecy” against journalist Ariane Lavrieux and the website that published the article.
A preliminary investigation was opened in November 2021 before an investigating judge was appointed in the summer of 2022.
Journalist Ariane Lavrio was arrested and her home was searched as part of this case (social media)
Complaint outside France
As part of the judicial and legal interactions in this case, the two human rights non-governmental organizations “Egyptians Abroad for Democracy” and “Code Pink-Women for Peace” filed a complaint before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on charges of “violating the European Convention on Fundamental Rights,” according to an article. Posted by Disclose Thursday.
According to the two organizations, “the French judiciary’s repeated refusal to open an investigation after the website published information about Operation Serli constitutes a violation of at least three articles of the European Convention,” which are the right to life, the right to a fair trial, and the right to obtain means of “effective appeal.”
The initial complaint of complicity to commit crimes against humanity filed by the two organizations was dismissed in 2022, while Disclose noted that “all appeals in France have been exhausted.”
Accusations and prosecutions
In a rare incident, the home of journalist Ariane Lavrieux was searched and she was placed in pretrial detention in September for 39 hours as part of a judicial investigation opened by the Public Prosecution in Paris on charges of compromising national defense secrets and divulging information that would reveal the identity of intelligence agents.
A former soldier, considered by the judiciary as the journalist's source, was also accused of embezzlement and divulging secrets related to national defense, two crimes punishable by law with 7 years in prison and a fine of 100,000 euros. He was placed under judicial supervision.
This comes within the framework of a judicial investigation opened by the Public Prosecution in Paris in July 2022 on charges of endangering national defense secrets and revealing the identity of military personnel, and entrusted it to the General Directorate of Internal Security.
Source: Al Jazeera + French