France Closes 7 Mosques Under Anti-Terrorism Law, Government Reports

In a press release published on Tuesday, Christophe Castaner and Laurent Nunez, respectively Minister of the Interior and Secretary of State to the Minister of the Interior, welcomed the good figures for the application of the law on domestic security and the fight against terrorism.

Thus, ten attacks have been foiled on French territory and seven mosques have been administratively closed at the request of the prefects, decisions that have all been confirmed by the courts. Since October 2017, 106 individual measures have been taken and out of the 40 appeals against these measures, 37 have received the approval of the judges.

During the same period, 93 searches (home visits) were authorized by the judges, which allowed, according to the Ministry of the Interior, to "foil a planned attack and stop the creation of a recruitment and dispatch channel for fighters to the Levant".

Despite these measures, the security forces were unable to prevent three attacks, including the one in Thèbes (4 dead and 15 injured), the knife attack in Paris (1 dead and 5 injured) and the shooting at the Strasbourg Christmas market (5 dead and 11 injured).