Laurent Nuñez, in Dijon on June 16, 2020. -

TARDIVON JC

The ultra-left worries.

Laurent Nuñez denounced Sunday the "significant rise in violence" of this movement.

The observation of the national intelligence coordinator comes after the indictment of seven people suspected of having wanted to prepare a violent action.

Damage especially on telephone pylons

Since the beginning of the year, the authorities have identified "a little less than 200 degradations", part of which has been claimed by the ultra-left, after a call to commit "" direct actions ": to degrade places of" Great capital ", local communities, relay stations", explained Laurent Nuñez.

“More than half” of the damage identified concerns telephone towers.

"In 2017, there was also a somewhat identical call, but that of this year seems more followed, there are more actions", he added.

On Friday, seven members of the ultra-left were indicted for a criminal "terrorist association".

These six men and a woman, aged 30 to 36, suspected of having wanted to prepare violent action, were arrested Tuesday.

Their targets were not "arrested," said a source close to the matter on Sunday.

"It revolved around institutions, law enforcement or the military," she added.

The memory of the Tarnac affair

One of the suspects, Florian D., considered to be the “ringleader”, fought alongside the Kurds in Western Kurdistan, in northeastern Syria, for ten months from 2017 to early 2018, according to this source.

Arrested in a squat in Toulouse, he was homeless and had been convicted of aggravated violence, carrying weapons, driving under narcotics, said another source close to the investigation.

Before this case, the last known referral to the anti-terrorism justice for facts related to the ultra-left dates back to the Tarnac affair in 2008, for suspicion of sabotage of TGV lines.

But the terrorist qualifications, the subject of bitter debate, had been abandoned by the courts before the trial.

At the beginning of 2020, the Grenoble prosecutor had asked, in vain, the anti-terrorism prosecution to take up the actions claimed by the ultra-left, about fifteen fires in his region committed in three years targeting the gendarmerie and various institutions (town hall, church, public services).

About 2,000 members

The authorities estimate the number of members of the ultra-left movement at around 2,000.

"The intelligence services have certainly focused on Sunni Islamist terrorism in recent years, but have never done so to the detriment of the surveillance of other mobilities," said Laurent Nuñez, however.

Justice

Seven people from the ultra-left suspected of violent action project indicted

Miscellaneous

Conspiracies, anti 5G, ultra-left groups… Who blames relay antennas?

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