Paris: Agencies
A judicial source reported on Sunday that four of five people who were detained as part of an anti-terrorism operation in the eastern province of Mert-et-Moselle were released, while the detention of the fifth person was extended.
The French Public Prosecution Office for Counter-Terrorism Affairs announced that the intelligence services had arrested five people last Friday in eastern France as part of an investigation into the formation of a terrorist criminal organization. A source close to the file confirmed that the detainees had been placed in pretrial detention, without giving further details about the suspicions related to them. According to what the Middle East News Agency reported today
Yesterday, Saturday, another source close to the file said that the investigation opened regarding the formation of a criminal terrorist organization aims to “verify whether there is a terrorist plan, the extent of its achievement, and its goal or (objectives) if possible,” as the seriousness of a potential plan must be verified, Another judicial source indicated, refusing to confirm or deny whether the suspects had scouted the Christmas market locations.
A source close to the file also said that among these five young men, between the ages of 20 and 23, were two students, one of whom was arrested in the city of Toulle and the other in Vandover-les-Nancy, and they were monitored and tracked while they were shopping in the Christmas market in Strasbourg in The beginning of December.
It is noteworthy that five people were killed and dozens injured in an attack at the Christmas market in Strasbourg in 2018.
This measure coincided with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin's call on the security authorities to be extremely vigilant during the Christmas celebrations, due to "a very significant increase in the level of the terrorist threat."
The minister's call also came after France announced, on October 13, that it had raised the state of alert for an "emergency attack", following the stabbing to death of teacher Dominique Bernard, in an attack carried out by a former student at a school in the city of Arras, in the north of the country.