(AFP) French security forces have rejected 13 people who were selected to take part in the torch relay for the Paris Olympics, including some who had committed drugs offences as well as a suspected Islamist, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Monday.
Around 12,000 people have been vetted after being chosen for the 80-day relay across France which begins in Marseille on May 8 and will finish for the start of the Paris Games on July 26.
“The vetting process has taken place and led to 13 incompatibility notices, meaning a very low rate of 0.10 percent,” Darmanin told reporters at a press conference.
He said 10 were for people with “substantial criminal records, mostly for drugs offences,” while three others were rejected by the intelligence services for “radical Islam, foreign interference, or links to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.”
