The French publishing house whose employee was arrested on terror charges on his way to London book fair has said it is “chilling” that he was asked by British detectives about the authors published by his company.
Ernest Moret was approached by two plainclothes officers at St Pancras station on Monday evening, after arriving by train from Paris. He was arrested, after six hours of questioning, for alleged obstruction in refusing to disclose the passcodes to his phone and computer.
In a joint statement his employer Éditions la Fabrique, based in Paris, and the London-based publisher Verso – whose senior editor Sebastian Budgen’s house Moret was to stay at – confirmed that Moret had been released on bail but expressed concern about the questions he was asked by police.
The foreign rights manager was “interrogated for several hours and asked some very disturbing questions”, said the publishers, including about his view on pension reform in France, as well as his opinion on the French government and president Emmanuel Macron.
Macron has faced protests over the use of his constitutional executive powers to push through an unpopular increase in the pension age.
“Perhaps most seriously, during his interrogation he was asked to name the ‘anti-government’ authors in the catalogue of the publishing house La Fabrique, for which he works,” said the statement from the publishers.
“None of these questions should be relevant to a British police officer.”
Éditions la Fabrique and Verso said that to “ask the representative of a publishing house questions, in a counter-terrorism framework, about the opinions of its authors, is to take the logic of political censorship and repression of dissenting currents of thought even further.
“In a context of the authoritarian escalation of the French government faced by social movements, this element is chilling.”
The Metropolitan police confirmed Moret had been bailed but said they would not discuss or confirm what may have been raised during the police’s interviews.
Moret’s phone and computer were seized by police, and remain in their custody, and he will have to return to London in May.
The publishers demanded “no further action be taken against its foreign rights manager, and that his phone and computer be immediately returned”.
Following Moret’s arrest, writers’ association PEN International said it was “deeply concerned” while Pamela Morton, senior books and magazines organiser for the National Union of Journalists, said it seemed “extraordinary that the British police have acted this way”.
Budgen earlier said the arrest was “causing a stink at the London book fair”.
Karen Sullivan, founder of independent publisher Orenda Books, said there “can be no doubt that international publishers and authors – many of whom use their positions in the media spotlight to highlight societal issues – will think twice about visiting the UK” after Moret’s arrest.
The incident, she adds, “must have been absolutely terrifying for Ernest, and that in itself – the possibility that this could happen again – is a grave deterrent to travel here for work”.
