By Hajer M'tiri
PARIS
The French parliament adopted Tuesday a controversial anti-terrorism law aimed at stopping French nationals from traveling abroad to fight in Syria, Iraq and other regions.
According to the law, the ban can be imposed on French nationals when "there are serious reasons to believe that someone is planning to travel abroad to take part in terrorist activities, war crimes or crimes against humanity or in with terrorist groups' operations and in conditions likely to jeopardize public security upon their return to French territory."
The ban, which is effective for at least six months and which is renewable for up to two years, allows authorities to immediately confiscate the passports and identity cards of suspects. The suspects' names can be placed on the Schengen Information System used by European countries and private transport, and they also face the possibility of receiving up to three years in prison sentences and a $58,000 fine.
The bill also advocates targeting terrorism on the Internet with the possibility of blocking websites that "glorify terrorism."
The French parliament is made up of two chambers, the National Assembly, which has the final say in drafting legislation and the Senate.
The bill was first adopted by France's National Assembly, the country's lower house, on September 18 and later accepted by the upper house Senate on October 18.
The text of the law had its final reading in the Assembly on October 29 and then in the Senate on Tuesday, November 4.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, who proposed the bill in July, previously had said an estimated 930 French nationals, among them 60 women, went to Syria or Iraq to fight alongside militant groups there.
www.aa.com.tr/en
