Question 9647 — foreign policy

Summary

Mr. Frédéric-Pierre Vos draws the attention of the Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs to the dramatic situation of Mr. Tayeb Benabderrahmane, a French citizen, sentenced to death in absentia in Qatar in May 2023, following a secret and manifestly unfair trial. In its opinion No. 28/2025, adopted on April 8, 2025, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (GTDA) concluded that Mr. Benabderrahmane was arbitrarily detained (category I), deprived of liberty due to the exercise of his freedom of expression and opinion (category II), victim of serious violations of the right to a fair trial, accompanied by acts of torture and inhuman treatment (category III). The UN ordered Qatar, within six months, to open an independent investigation, prosecute those responsible, fully compensate Mr. Benabderrahmane and take any necessary reparation measures. These violations constitute serious breaches of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention against Torture, the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations of 1963 as well as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It also appears that this death sentence constitutes a retaliatory measure directly linked to the complaints filed by Mr. Benabderrahmane, after having suffered in Qatar acts of kidnapping, torture and arbitrary detention for 307 days. Despite the numerous alerts sent since March 2020, relayed by the press and by several parliamentarians, the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs has provided neither effective consular assistance nor diplomatic protection, allowing a situation to worsen which today exposes a French national to the death penalty, abolished in the country since more than forty years. Given the seriousness of the conclusions rendered by the UN and France's primary obligation to protect its citizens, he asks: what concrete measures has the Government taken to ensure the protection of Mr. Benabderrahmane and his family; what diplomatic steps are being taken or envisaged so that Qatar implements the UN recommendations without delay, particularly in terms of compensation, prosecution of those responsible and security guarantees; how it intends to guarantee, in the future, that France will act with the same firmness and effectiveness for any citizen who is the victim of serious violations of their fundamental rights abroad, including when the case presents a high political or diplomatic sensitivity.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

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