A proposed French law making rioters liable to pay up to €10,000 ($11,150) for damage they cause faces a backlash from rights groups and some lawyers who say it attacks the basic democratic right to take to the streets to protest.
President Emmanuel Macron's government, under pressure to quell social protests accompanied by some of France's worst unrest in years, says the law is needed to compensate victims of the vandalism that often follows protests, such as the looting and rioting seen across the country on October 17.
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But critics say the draft bill, being debated in parliament this week, is worded in such a way that legitimate protesters who happened to be close to the scene of any violence could also be deemed legally responsible for it and face prosecution.
"Around the edges of a protest there can be those who engage in violence or damage with no involvement from the vast majority of peaceful, legitimate demonstrators," said Hanna Bouchareb, a Paris-based lawyer who represented some of those accused in fast-track trials of taking part in rioting on October 17.
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"It's very problematic because it undermines the right to protest," she told Reuters.
The text states that anyone who knowingly formed part of a group of people would be held jointly responsible for any damage caused by any member of that group.
It further allows the state to seize welfare entitlements of those convicted, or those of their parents if they are minors, to help pay the costs.
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French businesses and retailers say they have lost millions of euros either through looting or vandalism or by being forced to shut their shops and board their windows during protests.
Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez, who offered his resignation to Macron last week after security forces were overwhelmed by the unrest, rejected arguments the law undermined the principle that individuals were only accountable for their own actions.
"What this draft law changes is that we are creating a joint responsibility – not a collective one," Nuñez, whom Macron asked to remain at his post, told broadcaster TF1.
That is a distinction rejected by France's Human Rights League (LDH) and a group of trade unionists who signed a column in Le Monde newspaper this weekend demanding it be scrapped.
Police were accused in 2020 of using excessive force against "yellow vest" anti-government protesters and there was criticism then of a subsequently watered-down law banning circulation of images of police officers in some circumstances.
In recent weeks, protesters have again accused police of heavy-handed tactics against the student protesters while lawyers including Bouchareb have raised legal concerns over the fast-tracked convictions of some of those accused of rioting.
Backers of the proposed new law point to surveys showing broad public support for it. The National Rally (RN) party of Marine Le Pen – the far-right frontrunner for next year's presidential election – said it would go even further.
"The vandal's law is good in that it recognises the principle of joint responsibility," RN senator Edwige Diaz told French television. "But not with a cap at €10,000."
(FRANCE 24 with Reuters)