2024-03-17 18:00:00
Three minors and one adult were arrested around ten days ago. They planned to attack a Brussels performance hall… But not only that. We found out they were also planning to attack the Eiffel Tower with explosives. Currently, several people are still wanted.
They do not know each other in reality, but talk for long hours regarding the Islamic State on the Signal application.
Among the members of the group, some search for weapons on the darkweb, others make do with knives. A discussion takes place on Friday March 1st. They wish to act the following Monday, as a source close to the matter tells us: “The police report was communicated and taken into account on Saturday morning, given the concrete elements relating to the imminence of an act. There is talk of striking Monday evening in Brussels. The operation is decided and implemented during the day and evening of Saturday. The DSU (Directorate of Special Units) sets up during the night from Saturday to Sunday“.
During the interrogations, the anti-terrorism agents asked the suspects if there were other targets than the Le Botanique performance hall… And indeed, one of the projects was even more daring: take to the Eiffel Tower.
“Some talked regarding meeting in Paris. They were talking regarding putting explosives at the base of the Eiffel Tower so that it would fall. There was one who always talked regarding suicide attacks with ram trucks. It was the Frenchman who always talked regarding this kind of attack“, says a source.
Michel Degrève is a lawyer. According to him, this type of long-distance relationship between radicalized young people who do not know each other is a classic pattern: “We observe among several young people who are in this movement profiles who are out of school, marginalized and who find a form of belonging in groups and radical movements which allow them to emancipate themselves on a social level“.
One of the minors involved was arrested in Charleroi. At 17, he came from a family practicing the Catholic religion. The radicalized young man, who defines himself as a Salafist, has been attending a mosque for a year and a half, but he considers it too lax. A relative confides: “In just a year, his attitude has changed: beard, long hair, prayer clothes. He became cold, distant, closed, moralizing. To those who feared religious radicalization, he brushed aside their fears and tirelessly replied that he had simply found faith…“.
Currently, the federal prosecutor’s office is still seeking to identify certain active profiles on the group, entitled “Dawlatal Islam Baqiyah”, which means “The Islamic State will persist”.
During the searches, no weapons or explosives were discovered, but the determination of the young people to take action seems very real. “They can begin carrying out their act by looking, for example, for plans of the place in which they intend to carry out the attack or by looking for weapons to kill and injure. These acts are already the beginning of the execution of a terrorist attack, which was previously announced among themselves or on social networks“, explains Henri Laquay, lawyer specializing in criminal law.
Paris Eiffel Tower radicalization attacks
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