The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) confirmed on Tuesday the opening of a judicial investigation into a minor born in 2008. The teenager was arrested, indicted and placed in pre-trial detention last week for a planned attack in France considered by the courts to be of terrorist inspiration, AFP learned from corroborating sources on Tuesday.
A source close to the case notably confirmed the arrest and police custody last week of this minor from the west of France, for a planned violent action in the territory.
The PNAT declared that it had opened a judicial investigation on Friday for “terrorist criminal association with a view to committing crimes against people”.
The accused “was indicted on this charge and placed in pre-trial detention”, added the PNAT, refusing to communicate more details on the motivations for this proposed action, nor on its progress at the time of the arrest.
On Thursday, the Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau spoke of an attack foiled “some time ago” that “a very dangerous individual was about to take action” would have attempted to commit.
The last arrests for a planned violent action in France date back to mid-October.
A 22-year-old Afghan, committed to the ideology of the Islamic State according to the anti-terrorism prosecution, was indicted and then imprisoned, suspected of having “fomented” a “plan for violent action” in a football stadium or a shopping center.
During the period of the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, three attacks were foiled, according to the authorities. Five people were indicted, including a minor teenager, in these cases.
The “jihadist threat represents 80% of the procedures” carried out by the PNAT, recalled anti-terrorism prosecutor Olivier Christen in mid-September. “In the first half of 2024, there were approximately three times as many procedures” of this type as over the same period in 2023, he added.
In July, he pointed out the “very sharp increase in the number of minors implicated in anti-terrorism procedures”.
