The three men are aged 19 and 20. All were arrested Tuesday and Wednesday, in Nîmes and Nantes, then indicted, after four days of police custody, this Saturday in Paris. They are suspected of having planned a violent action of jihadist inspiration with “homemade bombs”. After their custody at the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), the three suspects were questioned by an investigating magistrate, then placed in pre-trial detention on Saturday.
Who are the three suspects?
One is a computer science student and “son of an imam chaplain who works in prison,” AFP learned on Sunday from sources close to the case. A second studies chemistry and the last, psychology. “They exchanged on social networks,” according to the source close to the investigation, but had already met and at least two of them had tried to make homemade bombs in a student room.
They had gathered everything they needed to handle homemade TATP-type explosives, used, among other terrorist groups, by Daesh, and for which they were to receive “new ingredients,” says The Parisian. “They had even trained in handling explosives,” according to our colleagues, but were arrested “before taking possession of this delivery in a locker.”
These “fanatics of jihadist organizations” were arrested as part of a preliminary investigation opened on November 20, confirmed the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat). Investigations are now entrusted to investigating magistrates.
What are they accused of?
Their conversations deemed “disturbing” on encrypted networks, in which they mentioned the Islamic State organization or the HTS jihadist rebels, alerted the DGSI police officers. They are suspected of having planned a violent action of jihadist inspiration with “homemade bombs” and of having ordered material “to make homemade bombs,” these sources close to the matter and a source told AFP on Sunday. close to the investigation.
Two of them are indicted for “unauthorized manufacture of explosive devices” as well as for “possession and transport of an incendiary or explosive substance or product,” the Pnat confirmed on Sunday. Like the third accused, they are also being prosecuted for “criminal terrorist association”.
But why Poitiers?
The town hall of Poitiers was among the targets envisaged by the suspects, radicalized around jihadist theories. But why? Quite simply because these three young men saw in it the symbolic battle of Poitiers, in 732, during which Charles Martel defeated Arab-Berber troops. The headquarters of the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) could also be mentioned, according to these sources. in their conversations. Always according to The Parisianthe three young men also discussed the idea of going to Syria.
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“The targets are not consolidated” at this stage of the investigations, clarified the source close to the investigation. A source close to the town hall also assured AFP that the city had not received any “direct threat”.
What is the reaction of the mayor of Poitiers?
“I have every confidence in the police and the justice system to identify, arrest and condemn the perpetrators of attempted terrorist actions of this type,” reacted the environmentalist mayor of Poitiers, Léonore Moncond'huy. “Poitiers has a long history and must remain a model of peaceful coexistence and dialogue between cultures, between spiritualities, with respect for each person's differences and in the refusal of violence,” the city councilor told AFP .
