France unveils new anti-terror measures
January 7, 2016
After participating in a wreath-laying ceremony at a newly-unveiled monument for the victims of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, French President Francois Hollande delivered a speech that addressed new laws aimed at increasing security in France.
Hollande was speaking at the capital's police headquarters. Three officers were killed in a series of January, 2015 attacks that included a shooting at the offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo. Eleven of the newspaper's staff members were killed. On November 13, 2015, 130 people were killed in a series of coordinated attacks across Paris.
One of the new laws will allow off-duty police officers to carry their weapons. Police are to be given more flexible rules of engagement and stronger stop-and-search powers, and other measures aim to increase communication between various French law enforcement departments.
"Faced with these adversaries," Hollande said, "it is essential that every service - police, gendarmerie, intelligence, military - work in perfect harmony, with the greatest transparency, and that they share all the information at their disposal."
The changes also foresaw more instense surveillance of suspected "radicalized" citizens who have traveled to Syria or other countries to join the so-called "Islamic State," or other extremist groups.
"We must be able to force these people - and only these people- to fulfill certain obligations and if necessary to put them under house arrest ... because they are dangerous," Hollande said.
Soon after the conclusion of Hollande's speech, police in another part of Paris shot and killed a man who attempted to enter a police station while carrying a knife. The man is reported to have been wearing a fake explosives belt at the time of the attack.
mz/msh (AP, AFP, Reuters)