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Case #: 2016-10-0300-Aunit Document #112021 Filed # 03/23/20 Page 5 of 18
WILLIAM JULIÉ
AVOCAT À LA COUR - ATTORNEY AT LAW extit{}extradition and other removals", ECtHR 12 April 2012, Babar Ahmad and Others v. the United Kingdom, no. 24027/07, §168).
23. France has no difficulty with deporting individuals who have lost French nationality by application of Article 25 of the Civil Code, which enumerates the list of crimes that may give rise to a deprivation of citizenship. For example, a dual French-Algerian citizen named Djamel Beghal was recently deported to Algeria after he was convicted of terrorist offences and subsequently deprived of his French nationality2.
24. While in custody in France, Djamel Beghal was also convicted in absentia to a term of prison in Algeria, but his extradition initially seemed impossible, not because he used to be a French citizen, but because the case law of the ECtHR specifically prohibits State parties from deporting persons deprived of their nationality to the State of which they remain a national, when there is a risk of torture or degrading treatment3. Beghal was eventually deported to Algeria where he was arrested upon landing for the purpose of standing trial. In this case, the French government's decision to deprive Djamel Beghal of his French nationality was clearly intended to allow for his removal from France, whether through extradition or deportation, as both means of removal were conceivable at the time. Had there not been a risk of violation of the ECHR at the time of the Algerian extradition request, he may well have been extradited as opposed to deported a few years later, when that risk was eliminated.
25. In any case, the deportation of formerly French citizens shows that the loss of French nationality prevents any retroactive application of domestic provisions which are intended to protect French nationals, be it from deportation or extradition.
2 https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2018/07/16/incertitude-sur-le-sort-de-l-islamiste-djamel-beghal-qui-sort-de-prison-lundi_5332053_3224.html
3 ECtHR 3 December 2009, Daoudi v. France, application no. 19576/08. or 4 sept. 2014, Trabelsi c. Belgique, req. n° 140/10, 17 janv. 2012, Othman c. Royaume-Uni, req. n° 8139/09. For more details, http://www.revue-dlf.com/cedh/loignement-des-etrangers-terroristes-et-article-3-de-la-convention-europeenne-des-droits-de-lhomme/
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