The government is “tracking down” the authors of threats sent to high schools in the Paris region, assured Thursday Gabriel Attal, judging “unacceptable, inadmissible” these messages which “seek to achieve the necessary serenity in our educational establishments”. An audit of digital workspace units (ENT) affected by these threats will also be launched, particularly in the Ile-de-France region, added the Prime Minister.
“We will obviously be very vigilant to ensure that the greatest firmness is applied”
Gabriel Attal spoke at the end of a meeting on the security of educational establishments, in which ministers Éric Dupond-Moretti (Justice), Nicole Belloubet (Education), and Sabrina Agresti-Roubache (City) participated. “I remind these authors here: they think they remain anonymous, but we track them. They think they are safe, but we sanction them,” said the head of government, recalling that for this type of threat, the Convictions can be “up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine of 45,000 euros”.
“Several dozen perpetrators of these threats, which occurred in recent months, have already been brought to justice,” said Gabriel Attal. “We will obviously be very vigilant with the Minister of Justice to ensure that the greatest firmness is applied” in these new cases. Messages threatening a terrorist attack, accompanied by a video of beheading, have been sent since Wednesday to high schools in the Paris region by hacking digital workspaces (ENT), facts which come after a wave of bomb threats at several establishments in the fall.
“Around fifty” establishments are affected at this stage, the Ile-de-France region told AFP. According to a ministerial source, the messages are no longer being spread because the ENTs “have been suspended”. Gabriel Attal also announced the holding on April 4 of a meeting on the security of “150 to 200” establishments considered “more particularly at risk”, promising to “clean the sidewalks around” in the face of “gangs” and “deals”.
Nicole Belloubet, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin and Éric Dupond-Moretti will receive “all the prefects, academy rectors and attorneys general to launch a mobilization” at the departmental level aimed at providing “an appropriate response” to establishments at risk, detailed the Prime Minister. In the next “clean square” operations to fight against drug trafficking, “there will be a specific component dedicated to the surroundings of educational establishments”, he added, promising “cyber security, internal security (…) and security outside.