Court Overturns Ban on Muslim Airport Worker’s Security Access

The employee, a former French soldier, had challenged the prefectural decision before the courts in December 2022. According to Actu, which received a copy of the judgment dated November 7, 2024, the prefect of police of Paris, based on a "report" from the National Service for Administrative Security Investigations (SNEAS) and a "white note" from the intelligence services, decided to withdraw the Muslim employee’s authorization to access the secure areas of Paris airports.

To justify his decision, the prefect of police had mentioned "opinions contrary to republican values" of the employee "from the end of 2020 onwards", suspecting him of having "maintained relations with individuals unfavorably known" to the police, "including for terrorism cases". The Muslim employee had "himself reported to his superiors [...] the departure to Syria" of the people with whom he would have "maintained relations," notes the court, which considered that the arguments put forward by the prefect to withdraw the employee’s authorization "do not contain any information on the seniority, nature and frequency of the alleged relations."

Moreover, the reasons given "do not transcribe the content of the (problematic, ed.) remarks he would have made, nor the precise circumstances in which he would have expressed such opinions." The court also found insufficient the elements retained by the prefect to qualify the employee’s religious practice as "rigorous and regular." In light of the foregoing, the court ordered the prefect to conduct a "new investigation" of the employee’s accreditation application no later than Tuesday, January 7.