Europe 1 with AFP 11:33 a.m., March 8, 2024
Three teenagers aged 15 to 17, suspected of having been in contact with the four men arrested on Sunday in Belgium for a planned attack, were indicted in Paris for criminal terrorist association.
Two of them, aged 15 and 17, were placed in pre-trial detention.
Three teenagers aged 15 to 17, suspected of having been in contact with the four men arrested on Sunday in Belgium for a planned attack, were indicted in Paris for criminal terrorist association, a close source said on Friday. of the file and the national anti-terrorism prosecution (Pnat).
Two of them, aged 15 and 17, were placed in pre-trial detention, the third, 15, under judicial supervision, said the Pnat.
They were arrested on Monday in three cities in France by investigators from the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI).
The three minors were not directly involved in the foiled attack plan against a concert hall in Brussels, but adhered to Islamist theories, the source close to the matter observed on Tuesday.
The teenagers “interacted in a group on a social network in which exchanges of jihadist propaganda took place and plans for an attack were mentioned,” Pnat explained on Tuesday.
“In this context, they were able to be in contact with other people, including certain individuals arrested in Belgium,” he added.
Four men arrested on Sunday
Their police custody took place within the framework of two separate procedures.
The first, which concerns a 15-year-old minor, has focused since November 2023 on a “terrorist criminal association (for wanting to join the Islamic State in the Iraqi-Syrian zone and planning to commit an attack) and apology for terrorism (for dissemination propaganda of the Islamic State)".
The latter was placed in pre-trial detention.
Another 15-year-old minor has been indicted for these facts since November 2023.
The second was opened last week for “terrorist criminal association with a view to preparing one or more crimes of personal injury”.
The two other adolescents were indicted as part of these investigations.
The 15-year-old was placed under judicial supervision and the 17-year-old was incarcerated.
On Sunday, Belgian police arrested four men during searches in Brussels, Ninove, Charleroi and Liège, according to Belgian federal prosecutor Eric Van Der Sypt.
These “three minors in their late teens” and a young man of 18 were suspected “of planning a terrorist attack in Belgium”.
Neither weapon nor explosive were found during the searches, but the messages exchanged by the four suspects were “sufficiently worrying for us to intervene and carry out searches,” Eric Van Der Sypt said.