Country Reports on Terrorism 2016 - France

Overview: France remained a key counterterrorism partner of the United States in 2016. It is a longstanding member of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, contributing early to the air campaigns in Iraq and Syria. President Hollande renewed his commitment to the fight against ISIS in the aftermath of the July 14 ISIS-claimed terrorist attack in Nice, redeploying the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle to support intensified airstrikes against ISIS. France has also deployed approximately 3,500 troops to engage in Defeat-ISIS operations, as well as strike and refueling tanker aircraft. France continued its counterterrorism operations in Libya, Mali, and other parts of the Sahel region. Bilateral arrangements finalized in March and April enhanced already strong cooperation with the United States on exchanging information related to known or suspected terrorists.

France continued to face an elevated domestic terrorist threat level in 2016, most significantly from ISIS and ISIS-affiliated individuals. France is the largest European Union (EU) source of foreign terrorist fighters in Iraq and Syria. While the number of French citizens attempting to travel to Iraq and Syria decreased in 2016, officials worry this could increase the possibility of additional attacks on French soil as radicalized individuals choose to act at home, inspired by ISIS messaging.

Three significant attacks by terrorists affiliated with or inspired by ISIS claimed 89 lives and wounded more than 400 in 2016. In December 10 public remarks, Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said authorities foiled 17 terrorist plots in 2016. While the January and November 2015 attacks exhibited organizational complexity, minimally-directed attacks requiring little operational overhead presented the greatest threat and caused the most damage in 2016.

2016 Terrorist Incidents:

• On January 7, the anniversary of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks, a man wearing a fake explosive vest and wielding a butcher knife attempted to attack a police station in Paris. Police officers shot and killed the assailant – Tarek Belkacem, a 20-year-old born in Morocco – before he could injure anyone. Investigators later found on the attacker a handwritten note pledging allegiance to ISIS and justifying the act as a response to the attacks in Syria.

• On June 13, 25-year-old French citizen Larossi Abballa killed a police officer and his civil servant wife with a knife at their home in the Paris suburb of Magnanville. In a 12-minute video streamed live on Facebook during a standoff with police, Abballa pledged allegiance to ISIS and called for more attacks on police, journalists, and other public figures. Police forces raided the house, killed Abballa, and rescued the couple's three-year-old son, who was unharmed.

• On July 14, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian national with French residency, drove a 19-ton truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day on Nice's promenade, killing 86 and wounding more than 400 during the mile-long rampage. After several attempts by bystanders and police to stop the truck, two police officers shot and killed the driver approximately five minutes after the attack began. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was armed with a 7.65mm handgun; several replica weapons and an unarmed grenade were reportedly found in the otherwise almost entirely empty rental truck. ISIS's propaganda outlet, Amaq, issued a statement on July 16 describing the attacker as "a soldier of the Islamic State."

• On July 26, two teenagers wielding knives and a non-functioning pistol killed an 86-year-old priest and wounded a parishioner attending mass at a Catholic church in Normandy. Police shot and killed the two perpetrators – 19-year-old French citizen Abdelmalik Petitjean and 19-year-old Algerian-born French citizen Adel Kermiche – as they tried to flee the church using the remaining hostages as shields. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, describing Kermiche and Petitjean as "Islamic State soldiers," and later released videos of the two attackers pledging allegiance to the terrorist organization.

• In early September, French authorities arrested three women suspected of planning an attack on a Paris train station after an earlier failed effort to detonate a car bomb near the Notre Dame cathedral. One of the women arrested reportedly had ties to both the Normandy and Magnanville attackers, and two men arrested in connection with the plot were reportedly linked to ISIS operative Rachid Kassim.

Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security: France has a system of non-jury courts for terrorism trials and a broad definition of what is considered a terrorist offence – the so-called "association of wrongdoers" offense – which allows it to cast a wide net and imprison a broad range of suspects. Under French law, foreigners can be deported if they are believed to pose a serious threat to public order. France remains under a state of emergency enacted shortly after the November 2015 attacks in and around Paris. The state of emergency was renewed for the fifth time in mid-December and is currently scheduled to expire July 15, 2017.

Legislation extending the state of emergency expanded government authorities to monitor phone and online communications, perform warrantless searches, exploit digital media found during these searches, and detain suspects without charge for up to 96 hours, among other measures. Maximum sentences for the crime of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act increased from 10 years to 20 to 30 years. A June 3 law on terrorism and organized crime increased fines and jail time for not sharing encryption methods used in the furtherance of such activity. Visiting violent extremist websites with frequency can now result in a two-year prison term.

France has two national security forces: the General Directorate of National Police (DGPN) and the Directorate General of the National Gendarmerie (DGGN), both subordinate to the Interior Ministry. The DGGN is part of the Defense Ministry but the Interior Ministry manages its policing functions. The DGPN is responsible for civil law enforcement and criminal investigations in cities and large towns and is staffed with approximately 150,000 personnel. The General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) combines law enforcement capabilities with domestic intelligence gathering. Since the January 2015 Charlie Hebdo attacks, between 7,000 and 10,000 regular French army forces have been deployed domestically to protect sensitive sites as part of Operation Sentinelle.

In late November, French authorities arrested five individuals – four French citizens in Strasbourg and a Moroccan citizen in Marseille – suspected of planning an attack in or around Paris in early December. The arrests were the culmination of a months-long operation by domestic security agency DGSI.

France finalized an information-sharing arrangement with the United States that has helped systemize the already strong working-level exchange of information related to known or suspected terrorists. Within the EU, France was instrumental in efforts to push through legislation in April requiring use of Passenger Name Record (PNR) information and a June 10 agreement on stricter arms trafficking controls. Currently only used for select flights originating from higher-threat countries, France aims to have full PNR information coverage by mid-2017.

Countering the Financing of Terrorism: France is a member of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and has observer or cooperating status in the following FATF-style regional bodies: the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force, the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America, the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering, the Eurasian Group on Combating Money Laundering and Financing of Terrorism, and the Middle East and North Africa Financial Task Force. France's financial intelligence unit, Tracfin, is a member of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units and the Anti-Money Laundering Liaison Committee of the Franc Zone.

The French government announced nine new measures in 2015 to counter terrorist financing, several of which went into effect in 2016. The measures aim to limit the size and availability of anonymous and cash transactions, improve tracking of suspicious transactions, enhance due diligence checks, and bolster the capacity to freeze assets (e.g., by extending covered assets to include vehicles). Details on these measures can be found in French Finance Ministry communiqués from 2015 and 2016.

As of January 1, deposits and withdrawals totaling more than €10,000 (US $10,460) per month are automatically reported to Tracfin. On November 1, Tracfin gained systematic access to France's database of wanted persons, which includes lists of known and suspected terrorists. As of December 1, customs declaration requirements were extended to include any freight shipment of money or securities valued at more than €10,000 (US $10,460) within the EU. In November, Finance Minister Sapin issued a decree to go into effect January 1, 2017 on expanding government authorities to freeze more assets from a wider range of individuals, and constraining the use of anonymous pre-paid cards.

For further information on money laundering and financial crimes, see the 2017 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), Volume II, Money Laundering and Financial Crimes: http://www.state.gov/j/inl/rls/nrcrpt/index.htm.

Countering Violent Extremism: In May 2016, then-Prime Minister Manuel Valls released a unified Plan of Action Against Terrorism and Radicalization. The report's 80 recommendations to ministries and agencies across the French government address the broad scope of the problem, including improving research into the drivers of radicalization, developing reintegration and rehabilitation centers for radicalized individuals, better securing vulnerable sites, and building national resilience to terrorist attacks.

The Inter-ministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR) is responsible for coordinating the implementation of the French government's Plan of Action. CIPDR expanded access to prevention and reintegration counseling services through a network of government-supported civil society organizations, and aims to double the approximately 2,200 individuals receiving such services by the end of 2017. CIPDR opened the first residential Citizenship and Reintegration Center in late September, and is tasked with opening others in each of mainland France's 13 regions. Separately, the Interior Ministry, which is responsible for oversight of religious communities, began an effort to reform the organization and financing of France's Islamic institutions. The Foundation for the Islam of France, relaunched in December after more than a decade of dormancy, aims to encourage domestic financing of Islamic institutions and improve the secular-civic education and French language ability of imams working in France. While there is no consensus among government officials, academia, or civil society on a single set of drivers to violent extremism, many cite the lack of credible, influential voices within France's Muslim population capable of directly contesting violent extremist discourse at a local and youth level as a critical gap.

The Ministry of Justice announced a reorganization of its approach to handling radicalization to violence in the French prison system in October. The government will use a two-stage approach. Prisoners suspected of radicalization to violence will undergo a four-month evaluation in one of six dedicated units. The most extreme cases will be sent to "violent prisoner units" where they will receive individualized attention and face stricter detention policies, including increased isolation, regular searches, frequent cell changes, and limited access to personal belongings. Lower-risk prisoners will be redistributed throughout the penitentiary system, but will continue to receive supplementary counseling.

The Prime Minister's office continued a counter-messaging campaign through the website stop-djihadisme.gouv.fr. The campaign deploys survivor's stories, interactive videos, and information on a toll-free hotline so those who believe a friend or relative is at risk of radicalization to violence can call for guidance and support. Five thousand individuals have been flagged for support services or judicial attention since the hotline opened in 2014. France is a core contributor to counter-ISIS coalition messaging efforts.

International and Regional Cooperation: France is a founding member of the Global Counterterrorism Forum. Sworn in in 2013, France's Jean Paul Laborde remained the Executive Director of the UN Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate. France played a strong role on the UN Security Council 1267/1989/2253 and 1988 Sanctions Committees. France supported the development and implementation of the UN Secretary-General's January 2016 Plan of Action for Preventing Violent Extremism and the G-7 Action Plan on Countering Terrorism and Violent Extremism. The French government undertook joint counterterrorism operations with several EU partners and played an active role in counterterrorism capacity building in other countries, both bilaterally and through the EU. The MFA designated Patrick Maisonnave as its first counterterrorism ambassador-at-large, responsible for coordinating efforts both within the French interagency and with international partners.