Is France Prosecuting a Palestinian Refugee on Evidence Extracted by Israeli Torture?

How might a hostile state pursue a refugee beyond its borders? This is a question some fear is at the heart of a case currently inching its way through France’s special-track antiterrorist justice system. 

Four UN special rapporteurs have warned that 2024 charges brought against “Ali O”, a Palestinian national who held refugee status in France, are built on compromised evidence provided by Israel. 

“We are concerned that Ali’s arrest, detention and prosecution appear to be based on information obtained through the use of torture and other forms of abuse against Palestinians by Israeli authorities,” wrote the UN experts, including human rights lawyer Francesca Albanese, in a 28 August communication issued to France and published in late October.

After fleeing Palestine, Ali O settled in France in 2016 and obtained formal recognition as a refugee in 2020. Married to a French citizen and the father of French children, he was arrested at his home in Strasbourg in May 2024. He was subsequently indicted for charges of terrorist financing and conspiracy connected to militant activity in the occupied West Bank in early 2023. 

A memo from the French intelligence services to the country’s refugee administration, and included in the litigation file seen by Novara Media, claims the defendant “participated in the transfer of funds and weapons with military aims” to Palestinian armed groups.

The investigation against Ali O was opened in late 2023. Though French criminal procedure precludes the defence from uncovering certain state evidence, the French state alleges that the defendant was a past member of the Fatah Hawks, a militant group linked to the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades and affiliated with the Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. It also claims that the defendant conducted online searches on websites used for the dissemination of guerilla tactics and weaponry. 

“[Ali O] committed several crimes incompatible with refugee status. Our service proposes withdrawing refugee status for the concerned party,” wrote the French intelligence bureau. Authorities revoked Ali O’s refugee status in February 2025, even though he has yet to be convicted and is therefore presumed to be innocent.   

Dismissing these accusations, Ali O’s counsel claimed allegations like these would be difficult to construct without close collaboration with outside state sources, notably Israeli. “Ali’s dossier demonstrates the degree to which the French justice system has accepted the role of a subcontractor for Israeli authorities,” attorney Raphaël Kempf told Novara Media, placing his client’s case in the wider crackdown and surveillance of Palestinian nationals residing in Europe. 

Irregularities in the case file also point to Israeli influence in the case against Ali O. The French intelligence memo stipulates he participated from France in militant activity in “Judea and Samaria,” i.e. the Israeli state’s official designation for the West Bank, which is internationally recognised as Palestinian territory, including by France. 

France’s anti-terrorism prosecutorial service (PNAT) declined Novara Media’s request for comment. 

Ali O isn’t an unknown quantity for the Israeli state. 

Born in 1990 and raised in the Balata refugee camp on the outskirts of the West Bank city of Nablus, Ali O was 14 years old when he witnessed his younger brother’s killing by an Israeli soldier. Two years later, he was arrested and held in extrajudicial detention before receiving a four-year prison sentence for throwing stones at Israeli occupation forces. It was the first of many stints in jail, according to the biographical information compiled by activists with the Free Ali committee. After his last release from Israeli detention in 2014, he fled to Europe, passing through Italy and Switzerland before making it to France. 

“France recognised [Ali O] as a refugee because of his well-founded fear of persecution by Israeli authorities,” UN special rapporteur on torture Pau Pérez-Sales said at a 29 October press conference following the publication of the co-signed notice to the French government. 

The case against Ali O is based on evidence gathered by Israel from three Palestinian sources. The UN memo warns that one witness, Ali O’s brother, was tortured on several occasions and there are grounds to presume that the other two sources were tortured as well, habitual practices for Palestinians held in Israeli captivity. None of the three were represented by an attorney. 

While the French government is within its right to investigate criminal activities, including cases related to terrorism, “France has an obligation to ensure that that its judicial system does not rely on declarations and evidence obtained under torture,” said Pérez-Salez.

Kempf accused the French government of double standards. “The justice system is making the choice to pursue Ali for these charges, just as it is making the choice to not investigate allegations made by my client over the use of torture in the evidence now being used against him,” he said. “By accepting to be the relay for Israel’s accusations against my client, France is de facto validating these types of practices.”

For Kempf, a deeper question remains France’s recourse to terrorism charges in Ali O’s case, pointing to the UN’s recusal of the qualification of terrorism for Palestinian militant activity taking place within an ongoing colonial conflict and occupation. “French prosecutors are operating in a vacuum and are pretending that the outside world just does not exist,” he said.

A hearing on Ali O’s ongoing pre-trial detention is scheduled for 23 November.