Eight charged over French ‘terrorist conspiracy’

France has charged eight men, including three minors, after an investigation into far-right activists plotting to attack politicians and mosques.

The men, aged between 17 and 29, are accused of being party to a “criminal terrorist conspiracy”, and of links to Logan Alexandre Nisin, a militant who was arrested near Marseille in June.

Nisin, 21, is the founder of a group called the Secret Army Organisation and was held after posting that he planned to attack blacks, Islamic militants, migrants and “scum”.

He had earlier come to the attention of French authorities as the administrator of a Facebook page glorifying neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik, who killed 77 people in a bomb and gun rampage in 2011 in Norway.

The prosecutor’s office in Paris said that the group formed by Nisin “had plans to commit violent actions”.

Anti-terrorist police arrested 10 people last Tuesday over the plot but two of them, including Nisin’s mother, were released.

Among the possible targets for attack were places of worship including mosques, politicians, “people of North African descent or black people” and “anti-fascist” activists.

“The organisation was planning purchases of weapons and paramilitary training. Some were already trained in shooting,” a police source said.

The organisation is named after a French far-right paramilitary group that fought to stop Algerian independence. Nisin was formerly active in the far-right political group Action Francaise.

France remains under an enhanced security status. Parliament on Wednesday adopted a tough antiterrorism bill that replaced a state of emergency imposed in 2015 after militant attacks in Paris.