French President Emmanuel Macron has called on the government and the security services to share more information on Islamic radicals with local mayors to help the fight against radical Islamic terrorism.
President Macron made the statements on Tuesday lamenting the fact that many local mayors had previously told him they were interested in helping to fight against terrorism but did not even know if they had residents on the terror watch list, known in France as the S-File, L’Express reports.
“Mayors are ready to do more,” Macron said and added: “A lot of mayors say ‘I have insecurity at home, I have S-files, I do not know who but I would like to know.'”
“By the month of July, the Minister of the Interior will make concrete proposals so that we can engage with mayors in this area,” he added.
Around 20,000 individuals are designated S-File across France and the main proponent to allow mayors more access to information on S-File individuals has come from Bruno Beschizza, mayor of Aulnay-sous-Bois.
Beschizza, a member of the conservative Republican Party, has called for mayors to have more access to information after it was revealed that Mohammed Belhoucine, an alleged accomplice of 2015 Kosher supermarket terror attacker Amédy Coulibaly, had been employed by the city hall in 2010 despite intelligence services having him on the S-File watchlist.
Belhoucine was later arrested in May 2010 when it was revealed he and his brother had helped radical Islamic extremists to fly overseas to fight for terror groups.
Other S-file members have also managed to gain access to sensitive information despite being on the watchlist. Last month, a female extremist named Mina B. was caught in possession of a USB key that the contained the identities of 2,626 intelligence officials from France’s Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence (DCRI).