Project of knife attack foiled in Paris: who were the two 23-year-old men indicted?
ISIS hate propaganda continues to grow on underground social media. A new case of a violent action project illustrates this. The project, carried by two young men, would have been thwarted.
They had imagined killing passers-by in places frequented during the end-of-year celebrations. Two 23-year-old men were arrested on November 29 in the Paris region, reveals The Parisian Wednesday 8 December. It is thanks to the confession of one of them that the second young man was found.
One of the suspects already convicted
One of the suspects, who disputes the facts, “was sentenced as a minor by the juvenile court in Paris in April 2019 to four years in prison, of which thirty months were suspended with probation”, the judicial source told AFP. “He acknowledged his fascination” with the organization of the Islamic State (IS), “but denied the plan to attack,” according to the close source. “However, hearings in his entourage and other elements of the file attest to his great radicalism”.
The second individual confessed to “a violent action plan”, the sources said. According to Le Parisien, this second would have ensured that his alleged accomplice was the most motivated and the most sure of himself.
Knife and jihadist propaganda seized
According to the internet user, the two men will meet on the Internet, not long ago. A physical meeting then took place, prompting the services of the DGSI to intervene. The police were put on their trail via information which indicated that they were making “disturbing remarks about their desire to sow death by Christmas, a period conducive to crowds, in the name of misguided Islam”.
According to our colleagues, these two young men were arrested in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) and Pecq (Yvelines) by the police from the General Directorate of Internal Security. After 96 hours of questioning, the two suspects were indicted for “association of criminal terrorist criminals” and imprisoned on Friday, December 3.
The homes of the two suspects were searched, allowing law enforcement to find jihadist propaganda in various seized computers, as well as cell phones and a knife.
A serious and imminent project
Both targeted different places: shopping centers, universities, crowded streets, specify our colleagues from the Parisian. “A shopping center, a university or even crowded streets” reports a source familiar with the matter to LCI. The project was described as “serious and imminent”.