The investigation continues. The custody of four young men arrested on Friday in Meurthe-et-Moselle in an anti-terrorist operation was lifted on Saturday evening, while a fifth man saw his custody extended, AFP learned this Sunday from judicial source. The investigation, opened for criminal terrorist association, aims to “verify whether there was a terrorist project, what its state of completion was and the target(s) if applicable,” a source close to the group said on Saturday. ‘investigation.
The investigations must verify the degree of seriousness of a possible project, indicated another source close to the investigation, refusing to confirm or deny whether the suspects had scouted a Christmas market.
“Potentially worrying” elements
A source close to the case told AFP on Saturday that among these five young men, aged 20 to 23, two of the suspects, two students, arrested one in Toul and the other in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy , were monitored and followed during a trip to the Strasbourg Christmas market at the beginning of December. The student arrested in Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy would have commented on social networks on a publication relating to the Christmas markets with aggression against these events.
This same source confirmed that the homes of the two students were searched on December 9. Investigators found a video filmed on the Strasbourg Christmas market, where they could hear: “And there, we shoot”.
The arrests took place Friday morning in Nancy, Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy and Toul. They took place “following potentially worrying elements”, another source close to the matter said on Friday evening. 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).
This operation took place while 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 the terrorist threat which continues to weigh”. An attack on the Strasbourg Christmas market left five people dead and around ten injured in 2018.