French intelligence agents have foiled multiple terrorist plots targeting the Paris Olympics – including arresting would-be suicide bombers, it emerged today.
It came as millions of visitors, including many from Britain, prepare to attend the showpiece sporting extravaganza when it opens at the end of this month.
‘Several arrests’ have taken place in connection with at least ‘two separate cases,’ said French Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin. Mr Darmanin added:‘They are being handed over to the justice authorities,’ saying he could not provide further details, because of the ongoing parliamentary election campaign in France.
But on Saturday, investigating source said those arrested were said to be connected to Khorasan, an Afghanistan-based offshoot of ISIS. The murderous terrorist group sent three suicide bombers to the Stade de France – the focal point of this year’s Olympics – as recently as 2015. One man was killed, and 63 others were wounded in the attack before more atrocities were committed around Paris.
A Khorasan suspect identified only as Rokhman B., a Chechen asylum seeker, is currently in custody after pledging to ‘die a martyr’ as he attacked Olympic football matches in his home city of Saint Etienne, in eastern France. He was arrested at the end of May, and investigations have ‘opened up links with other suspects,’ said the investigating source.
Rothman B. has since been indicted on a range of terrorism-related charges and placed in pre-trial detention while denying any wrongdoing. Instead, he admitted to ‘conversations’ on encrypted messaging applications but claimed they were harmless.
The plot was foiled by the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), said the source, explaining how they were working ‘night and day to ensure the safety of Olympics spectators’.
France has been on its highest terror alert level since March after an ISIS attack led to 145 deaths at a concert hall in Moscow. It comes as France braces itself for the results of the most divisive parliamentary election in living memory.
Tensions are running high as the National Rally (RN), led by Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella, leads opinion polls, and hopes to provide France’s first far-Right government since Nazi occupation during the Second World War.
In turn, opponents led by President Emmanuel Macron have called for a ‘Republican Front’ voting bloc to keep the RN out. He has always warned of ‘civil war,’ if those who oppose the election results take to the streets after exit poll results are published at 8pm on Sunday.
Mr Darmanin said his Interior Ministry registered 51 verbal and physical attacks against candidates during campaigning. He said these included 'extremely serious' physical assaults, and that 30 suspects were arrested in connection with a series of allegations, including causing actual bodily harm.
Police have already banned a protest planned for outside the National Assembly on Sunday evening by a group called Antifascist Action, because of fears of rioting. Some 30,000 police officers will be on duty across France, with 5000 in Paris alone.
Mr Macron announced the current election after his Renaissance party suffered a big defeat to the RN in the European Parliament elections on June 9.
While he was not required to dissolve parliament, he decided to take a gamble to see if the French people would revert to voting for more no moderate candidates.
The last far-Right leaders of France were Philippe Pétain and his prime minister, Pierre Laval, who headed the Vichy regime that collaborated with the Nazis for four years until 1944.