A French court this week upheld a ban on a Muslim engineer from entering nuclear sites citing his links with Islamist networks, in a move blasted by his lawyer as “Islamophobic”.
The 29-year-old, who works for a subcontractor to French energy giant EDF, had worked freely at nuclear power facilities throughout 2012 and 2013. But in March this year the man, who cannot be named under French law, had his pass to enter the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear power station revoked.
Officials said he had links with a jihadist terrorist group and that he was in touch with an imam involved in recruiting youngsters to fight in Iraq.
A court in the northeastern town of Châlons-en-Champagne upheld the ban saying the management could prevent those “undergoing a process of political and religious radicalisation” from accessing sensitive sites.
The man’s lawyer insisted his client was innocent and had no criminal or police record. “There is no proof of these supposed links,” Sefen Guez Guez told AFP, adding that he was looking at launching an appeal.
In June 2014, Guez Guez successfully had the ban revoked by an appeals court. But when the engineer turned up for work, he found he was once again refused access – this time by EDF – to his place of work and his lawyer appealed again.
See also “Affaire de l’ingénieur nucléaire empêché dans ses fonctions”, Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France, 1 September 2014
And “Islamophobie d’état, soutien à l’ingénieur nucléaire!”, Collectif contre l’Islamophobie en France, 3 September 2014
