PARIS, Jan 13: A 28-year old Franco-Algerian Muslim says he izs suing the French government for discrimination, also to find out why suddenly he was deprived of his access badge to the Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport and his engineering job at the airport’s control tower. The man says he’s being paid his full salary nevertheless, but on condition that he “stay away from his job.”
The decision by Olivier Baratelli, the airport worker’s Paris-based lawyer, to file suit on grounds of racial discrimination, comes in the wake of the decision by airport authorities to suddenly, without any explanation, withdraw the badges and access cards of “between 100 and 200” employees, most of them bearing Muslim surnames.
Only last Friday, Abderazak Besseghir, a 27-year-old Franco-Algerian baggage-handler at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport was released from jail after having wrongfully been accused by police of having prepared a terrorist attack against the airport.
A French anti-racism organization, SOS-Racisme, said this weekend that it was filing suit on his behalf to allow him to obtain reparations from the French Government for having presumed he was guilty when all along he clamoured his innocence.
As for the 28-year old ex-airport control tower employee, his lawyer says that like Abderazak Besseghir, he was considered a model employee, had undertaken “brilliant studies” in the field of engineering, and until a few weeks ago when his badge was withdrawn, had never had any problems with police.
Mr Baratelli, in filing his suit, also wants for police to henceforth be obliged to give a reason why the badges of certain employees have been withdrawn or not renewed.
