French NGO BarakaCity Wins Court Approval to Continue International Operations

The court has invited the Association to manage the devolution of its assets according to its statutes, reports Le Figaro. Thanks to the procedure put in place by the NGO’s lawyers, the liquidator appointed without the NGO’s knowledge has lost his mandate.

After dissolving BarakaCity at the end of October, the government froze 1.5 million euros of the humanitarian association. Idriss Sihamedi, founder of the association, denounced the "illegal" freezing of his association’s funds and his personal funds, and took the opportunity to alert donors to the situation. "We don’t understand. We took note of the dissolution, we were in the process of organizing it, and suddenly the government freezes the funds of the association and my personal funds, without specifying the reason," said the founder.

"We will make all the appeals that are necessary" against this "new decision completely disproportionate to what we can be blamed for," announced Idriss Sihamedi.

For its part, BarakaCity’s counsel, Me Vincent Brengarth, also protested against the "attacks on the right to property and association." "The administrative harassment must have its limits," stressed Me Brengarth.