Uzbek expelled: Gérald Darmanin wants to “organize everything” so that he “cannot return” to France

Gérald Darmanin affirmed Wednesday evening that he was going to “organize everything so” that an Uzbek national suspected of radicalization expelled in November to his country of origin “could not return” to France, while the Council of State ordered him to return. “I have decided to send him back to his country (…), whatever the decisions of each person (…). We are going to organize everything so that he cannot come back. We can still rejoice!”, declared the Minister of the Interior on CNews.

Considered “radicalized” and “very dangerous”

On December 7, the Council of State, the highest administrative court, “enjoined” France to bring back an Uzbek who was expelled to his country of origin despite a decision by European justice. This Uzbek national, suspected of Islamist radicalization by French intelligence services, was deported on November 15 by plane to Uzbekistan. Targeted by an administrative ban from the territory from April 2021, this man has been the subject since March of an interim measure pronounced by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to prevent his expulsion, “his life being in danger in his country of nationality”, according to human rights associations.

According to the Interior, interviewed on December 1, the French intelligence services consider this man, aged 39, as “radicalized” and “very dangerous”. The ministry also judged that he was not likely to “run a personal, real and serious risk by being returned to Uzbekistan” after having gone there in 2018 and that there was a child in 2019 without being worried by the local authorities.

When asked for his opinion on the ECHR, Gérald Darmanin replied: “Where is he now?” This means that the ECHR’s decision did not prevent the government from expelling the Uzbek national.