FILING Muslim students in Béziers: closed without further investigation – Le Point

The floor of Béziers said Thursday it had filed away the investigation opened in May of alleged illegal file of the municipality of Beziers, on a count of Muslim students. “There is no basis to prove anything. I close the case without further action,” said the prosecutor of Beziers, Yvon Calvet, who had opened a preliminary investigation for “illegal keeping of records due to ethnicity “

When political broadcast on France 2 Crossword 5 May, the mayor of Beziers, Robert Ménard, close to the National Front, declared:. there” 64, 6% of Muslim students in public schools of Béziers. It is the hall of my numbers. Sorry to say, the mayor, class by class, the children’s names. I know I do not have right to do. Excuse me to say, first names say confessions. To say the opposite is to deny the obvious. ” The mayor of Béziers had however insisted the next day that there was “no pointing of students in Beziers” and that there would “never”.

“A phony controversy”

“I’m really pleased. This is the end of a bogus controversy. There was nothing illegal to say this, common sense triumphed. Say what seems to be the trade of the mayor. There was absolutely nothing in this case. It is a blow to Taubira, Valls and the president “, welcomed with Robert Ménard. This Crossword reportable had indeed led to criticism, to the highest state level. Hollande had evoked a process “contrary to all the values ​​of the Republic”, and Manuel Valls had tweeted “Shame on the mayor.” The former president of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was also heard by the PJ Montpellier.

On May 11, the Administrative Court of that city had rejected an urgent application filed by an association freedom to enjoin Mayor of Beziers, Robert Ménard, close to the National Front, to stop the collection of information on the religion of pupils, in the absence of evidence of the existence of specific files. “It does not follow either parts subjected to the judge nor the information gathered at the hearing” that the city of Béziers would have been “one or more specific files, dematerialized or not, based on religious affiliation (…) of students, “stressed the court. However, information on students “were collected from the files listing the students enrolled in public schools in which children supposedly belonging to the Muslim religion have been identified by their first names,” the court noted.