Brussels, 14/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - European Anti-terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove warned on Tuesday 13 January of the threat of further attacks and of the dangers of radicalisation in prison.
“The threat of further attacks remains serious”, he told AFP. “Daesh (Islamic State) wants to act and has said so. Al-Qaeda has been much weakened but wants to remain involved and remind us that it is still there. Then there is the al-Nosra Front, the Syrian wing of al-Qaeda, which is looking for European citizens with valid passports who could easily travel here or take a plane”, he said. “There is no miracle solution. It is by combining prevention, detection, enforcement and the international dimension that we will try to avoid as far as possible any repetition. But preventing it - no. We will not be able fully to prevent it.”
“We will not foil a further attack. … But we can try as far as possible to prevent it happening again, without turning into a totalitarian society”, he said, stating too that “prisons are incubators of mass radicalisation”. This warning comes as French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has announced separate units for jihadis in prison, with testing of these plans to be carried out in a number of prisons.
“Criminal legislation has to be harmonised but, please, let's not put all those returning from Syria in prison. They will become even more radical and they will inspire others”, stressed de Kerchove. He highlighted that French citizens Mohammed Merah, who carried out a series of murders in Toulouse (France) in March 2012, Mehdi Nemmouche, charged with the murders of four people at the Jewish Museum in Brussels in May 2014 and Amedy Coulibaly, one of the three Paris terrorists, “were radicalised in prison”.
Europol Director Rob Wainwright told the UK parliament home affairs select committee in London that “we are talking about some 3,000 to 5,000 EU citizens” who have left Europe to fight with radical Islamist movements. “Clearly, we're dealing with a large body of mainly young men who have the potential to come back and have the potential or the intent and capability to carry out attacks we have seen in Paris in the last week”, he said, warning: “It's the most serious terrorist threat Europe has faced since 09/11”. He told the committee that Europol had already assembled a list of 2,500 potential suspects from a number of security agencies across the EU.
De Kerchove said that, from the information he has, nearly 3,000 European citizens have joined jihadist groups in Syria or Iraq, with 30% of these already back in the EU.
Madrid toughens anti-terrorism measures. The Conservative Spanish government and the Socialist opposition agreed on 13 January to tighten anti-jihadist terrorism measures, following the Paris attacks, Spanish Interior Minister Jorge Fernandez Diaz is reported by AFP as saying. “We agreed to bring forward a joint proposal for an organic law, as a matter of urgency, with the clear willingness to bring the other parliamentary groups on board”, the minister said. The Socialists want “to better tackle jihadist terrorism and improve security without losing one ounce of freedom”, stressed their parliamentary spokesperson Antonio Hernando. The amendments provide for prison sentences for individuals who travel to an area “controlled by a terrorist group”, if they belong to this group or if they have expressed the desire to “work with” any such organisation. There is also provision for specific prison sentences for any individual who attempts to learn, including by means of the internet, how to handle weapons and explosives in connection with a terrorist group. Investigators will not be required to prove intention to commit a terrorist attack. Fernandez Diaz repeated his support for passenger name records (PNR) containing the personal information of air passengers. The Socialists also support this move, subject to measures to ensure respect for personal liberties.
A high-level meeting will take place in Brussels on 16 January to prepare for the informal Council meeting of EU home affairs ministers in Riga at the end of the month. Improving information sharing between intelligence agencies and improving analysis are expected to be discussed by ministers, along with plans for a European PNR and tightening of controls on suspected returning fighters at the external borders of the EU.
Latvian Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma said in Strasbourg on Wednesday that “particular attention” had to be given to the “internal security strategy. Appropriate exchange of information among the various services has to be guaranteed. Attention will be paid to the PNR debate” (our translation throughout). (SP with CG)