2024-07-25 08:54:18
France and its law enforcement have been on high alert in recent weeks as preparations for the Paris Olympics are now complete. On Friday, on the banks of the Seine River and on the water, the Olympics will officially begin with a luxurious and highly guarded opening ceremony.
Paris prosecutors said on Wednesday that they had arrested a 40-year-old Russian man on Tuesday in a Paris apartment on suspicion of plotting to “destabilize the Olympic Games”.
The Russian was charged with “conducting intelligence work for the benefit of a foreign state” to “provoke hostilities in France,” according to a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office. These crimes are punishable by 30 years in prison in France.
During an official search of the suspect’s home in Paris, police officers found items that “caused extremely serious concerns and fears about the suspect’s intentions to organize events that could destabilize the Olympic Games,” prosecutors said in their statement.
The Russian embassy in Paris said it had not received any official letter from French authorities about the arrest of its citizen and asked French officials for an explanation. The Russian Embassy declined to comment further after the information provided by the prosecutors.
Organizers of the Games face major security challenges, including concerns about cyber attacks, international tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.
According to French officials and cybersecurity experts in Europe and the United States, sophisticated disinformation campaigns are also underway in Russia to derail the Olympics.
“We have a list of threats that we pay particular attention to, including cyber threats,” national police spokeswoman Sonia Fibleuil told The Associated Press.
“Such threats can be fake news or disinformation campaigns designed to amplify news using artificial intelligence or specially trained humans,” Fibleuil said.
This week, French intelligence determined that a social media video purporting to have Hamas threatening the Olympics and its organizers with terror was fake: it was produced by artificial intelligence and had links to Russia, according to a French security official.
The official who provided the information was not authorized to give his name or comment more broadly on intelligence matters.
Hamas representatives also denied through social networks and Telegram channels that it was this group behind the requested video.
Earlier, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told French broadcaster BFMTV that a young man had been arrested in the Gironde region of southwestern France on suspicion of “planning violent acts before the Olympics.”
Police arrested an 18-year-old boy on Tuesday on charges of “targeting the organization of the Games.”
The minister did not provide information about the suspect’s possible targets: it is not known whether they could have been events in Paris or other French cities.
“We are still working on this case… We avoid providing details, but we believe that there is a connection between the events,” G. Darmanin said. “It was determined that this person wanted to perform certain actions at the Olympic Games.”
Around 35,000 police officers will be deployed to the streets of Paris each day, with a peak of 45,000 on duty during the opening ceremony.
In addition, another 10,000 troops will take part in security operations in the Paris region.
France also received help from more than 40 countries, which together sent at least 1,900 police reinforcements.
2024-07-25 08:54:18