2023-12-23 04:36:15
Five people were arrested Friday in Meurthe-et-Moselle and placed in police custody by the intelligence services as part of an investigation opened for criminal terrorist association, indicated the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office (Pnat), confirming a information from The Republican East.
A source close to the case confirmed to AFP their placement in police custody, without further details at this stage on the suspicions hanging over them. According to this source, the arrests took place Friday morning in Nancy, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy and Toul.
The arrests took place “following potentially worrying elements”, said another source close to the case on Friday evening. “Police custody is just starting.” The suspects were probably under surveillance by the intelligence services before their arrest.
Members of the Islamist movement
According to a third source close to the case, the people arrested belong to the Islamist movement. The investigation is being carried out by the anti-terrorist sub-directorate (Sdat) of the judicial police and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI).
These arrests come as the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin called on Friday the prefects to “maintain extreme vigilance” on the occasion of the Christmas and Epiphany celebrations, due to the “very high level of terrorist threat which continues to weigh”.
The minister made this reminder while France has activated since October 13 the emergency attack level of the Vigipirate system, the highest, following the murder of Dominique Bernard, French teacher in a high school in Arras, stabbed by a radicalized former student.
The activation of the attack emergency level also occurred in an international context marked by the war between Israel and Hamas, triggered by a bloody and unprecedented attack perpetrated by the Palestinian Islamist movement on October 7 on Israeli soil from Gaza.
#MeurtheetMoselle #people #arrested #antiterrorist #operation