The court in Chalons-en-Champagne upheld the decision of the EDF, which refused a Muslim engineer access to nuclear sites, invoking the “defense secret.” The engineer was first refused access in March 2014 and his decision was confirmed by the administrative court of Chalons-en-Champagne. The French court, to which he had filed several appeals, explained that the ruling was upheld for reason that “the young man, 29 years old, had met with ‘an imam involved in recruiting’ of young jihadists deployed to Iraq to fight American troops.”
The engineer’s lawyer Sefen Guez Guez argued, “There is no evidence of these alleged links, this decision based on affirmations of insufficient detail is not worthy of a state of law.”
The decision comes after the engineer’s access was suspended without a definitive reason. In June, the administrative court sided in favor of the engineer, expressing “serious doubt on the legality of the decision” to suspend his access. However in July the EDF again suspended his access, prompting a retrial and the recent decision to permanently block his access.
