The seven suspects arrested on Monday during an anti-terrorist phone call in Finistère, including a refugee born in Syria and suspected of belonging to the Islamic State (IS) group, were charged and placed in pre-trial detention, we learned on Saturday from a judicial source.

These seven men, aged 16 to 38, were indicted Friday by a Parisian anti-terrorism judge for "criminal criminal criminal association", said this source.

According to concordant sources, they are suspected of having prepared a plan for "violent action" in France.

Among them, a man born in Syria and arrived in France in early 2015 is at the heart of the investigation. The 30-year-old, who is said to have a Palestinian passport, obtained refugee status a few months after entering French territory, according to a source close to the investigation. According to corroborating sources, Mohammad D. is suspected of belonging to the Islamic State group (IS).

According to one of the sources close to the investigation, it would be the central figure of this cell which has aggregated a community of radicalized figures from the Brest region followed for years by specialized services. Several people were marked "S" (for State Security).

Among the suspects is also the manager of a halal butchery in Brest, which served as a meeting place for the small group, also made up of a few converts and a 16-year-old high school student, the son of a Brest merchant.

In the aftermath of the attacks of November 13, 2015, the owner of the butcher's shop, aged about 30, had been arrested after having mimicked an automatic weapon shot during the passage of a police patrol. The case had earned him a suspended three-year prison sentence for "condemning terrorism".

This Brest trader is also suspected of having wanted to go to Syria in September 2014 in the company of his wife - described by the authorities as radicalized - and their two minor children. Although no weapon or explosive was discovered during the searches carried out on Monday, the investigators nevertheless discovered recently downloaded tutorials allowing the making of explosives or poison, but also propaganda material and several allegiances to the new Caliph of the 'Islamic State.

According to the investigations, the suspects sought to obtain weapons and evoked potential "targets", for example large rallies.

France has lived under a constant terrorist threat since the start, in 2015, of a wave of jihadist attacks which killed a total of 255 people.

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