PARIS: France´s highest administrativecourt on Friday suspended a ban on full-body burkini swimsuitsthat has outraged...
PARIS: France´s highest administrativecourt on Friday suspended a ban on full-body burkini swimsuitsthat has outraged Muslims and opened divisions within thegovernment, pending a definitive ruling.
The Conseil d´Etat gave the ruling following a request fromthe League of Human Rights to overturn the burkini ban in theMediterranean town of Villeneuve-Loubet on the grounds itcontravenes civil liberties.
The court said in a statement the decree to ban burkinis inVilleneuve-Loubet "seriously, and clearly illegally, breachedthe fundamental freedoms to come and go, the freedom of beliefsand individual freedom."
Under the French legal system, temporary decisions can behanded down before the court takes more time to prepare ajudgement on the underlying legality of the case.The ban, which spread to more than a dozen coastal towns,had exposed cracks within the Socialist government´s unity asPrime Minister Manuel Valls defended it on Thursday while someministers criticised it.
The issue has shone a light on secular France´s difficultiesresponding to homegrown jihadists and foreign militantsfollowing Islamist attacks in Nice and a Normandy church inJuly.
It has also made French cultural identity a hot-button issuealong with security in political debates as the country switchesinto campaign mode ahead of a presidential election next April.