PARIS (AP) — An Afghan evacuee who was among five men placed under surveillance in France for suspected direct or indirect links to the Taliban is scheduled to appear before a judge Wednesday for allegedly leaving the Paris region hotel where he was confined.
The man, who has not been identified by name, faces up to three years in prison and a maximum 45,000-euro ($52,875) fine if convicted during the urgent hearing of failing to respect an administrative surveillance order, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
The man and three others are believed to be close to another evacuee of interest to French security officials and not “directly suspected” of links to the Taliban, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has said.
The man “obviously linked” to the Taliban admitted belonging to the group and bearing arms at a blockade in Kabul, the interior minister said this week. Darmanin said that man also helped in the evacuation of the French Embassy, assisting the French army, citizens and journalists.
French intelligence agents were tracking the five via geopositioning and saw on Monday that one of them had left his restricted zone, Darmanin said on Tuesday.
It has not been made clear how far the man who left the security parameter strayed or why. He arrived in Paris last weekend and was immediately placed under watch, along with the four others, at the hotel east of Paris. All evacuees who arrive in France without having been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 were required to observe quarantines.
The interior minister, who ordered the special surveillance for the five, insisted in an interview Tuesday with France Info that there were no slip-ups in checking evacuees.
The evacuee with ties to the Taliban slipped through the cracks in the chaotic evacuation last weekend, but Darmanin said he admitted he had worked for the Taliban during a thorough identity check by the French at their air base in Abu Dhabi, a French transit point for evacuees.
France has so far evacuated at least 1,720 Afghan citizens and about 1,000 French nationals and some others from the European Union, with 241 people arriving Wednesday on a 10th evacuation flight.