Afghan evacuee gets 10-month suspended jail term for evading police control

A French court has handed a 10-month suspended jail sentence to an Afghan man found to have violated the terms of a special supervision order, days after France evacuated him from Taliban-controlled Kabul.

Police officers stand guard as a plane carrying Afghan evacuees arrives at Roissy Charles-de-Gaulle airport near Paris. REUTERS - SARAH MEYSSONNIER

The man, identified as Ahmat M., is one of five people who were placed under special police supervision after their arrival in France. The five are being investigated because of possible links with the Taliban.

Another man in the group of five is suspected of having worked directly for the Taliban.

The supervision order included strict limits on movements and Ahmat M., who arrived at the weekend, was convicted by a court late on Wednesday for straying outside of this zone.

Ahmat M., who says he was a prosecutor in Afghanistan before resuming his law studies, had been ordered not to leave the Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand, where he was housed with his wife, baby daughter and several other family members.

He told the court he wanted to buy medicine because he has suffered from headaches and vomiting since his arrival in France. In sometimes confused remarks, he said he followed a man living in the same hotel who offered to buy him these medicines, without realising that he was going to central Paris.

Arrested for 'going to a supermarket'

Ahmat M. insisted he was unaware of the restrictions he had to follow.

The other man told investigators that Ahmat M. had asked him to accompany him to Paris to buy SIM cards.

"This is not the case of a Taliban in France, it is the case of a man who fled his country with his wife and his three-month-old daughter" and who was arrested for "going to the supermarket," said his lawyer Alice Ouaknine.

The possibility that there could be Taliban members among the hundreds of Afghans evacuated by France over the last fortnight has ignited a storm of controversy in France, with migration set to be a prime battleground in 2022 presidential elections.

The political right has accused the government of President Emmanuel Macron of failing to carry out proper security checks. The president has also faced criticism from the left who accuse him of letting down ordinary Afghans by allowing limited numbers into France.