Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
French police halt ‘imminent’ attack, arrest two suspects
PARIS — French police thwarted an imminent “terror attack” and arrested two suspected radicals Tuesday in the southern port city of Marseille, French authorities said, just days before the first round of France’s presidential election.
Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said in a news conference that the two suspects “were getting ready to carry out an imminent, violent action on national territory.”
He said investigators have not yet determined “the day, the targets and the exact circumstances” of a potential attack.
France votes Sunday in the first round of its twostage election. Extra safety measures are being put in place for the balloting after the extremist attacks in the country that have made security one of the major issues of the presidential campaign.
The suspects, Mahiedine Merabet, 29 and Clement Baur, 23, both French, were detained under arrest warrants on terrorist criminal association, according to a police document.
Molins said Merabet had in recent days tried to send a video to the Islamic State extremist group to claim “allegiance or responsibility” for a potential attack.
Baur’s family signaled to authorities in 2015 that he was radicalized, with the possible intention of going to Syria. He had links with Belgian jihadi networks, Molins said.
In the suspects’ Marseille apartment, police found one automatic rifle, two handguns, quantities of ammunition and about 6.6 pounds of explosives as well as products and equipment to make explosives, Molins said.
He said a flag of the Islamic State, a video camera, six mobile phones, a laptop, a black hood, a mask and a wig were also discovered.
The two men were both known to police and intelligence services for their religious radicalism, authorities said. They met in prison in 2015, Molins said.
President Francois Hollande hailed the “remarkable” arrests and the work of police.
Agents from the French domestic security agency, backed by elite police units, conducted the arrests.
France’s fight against homegrown and overseas Islamic extremism has been one of the main campaign topics for presidential candidates.
Candidates on the right have been especially vocal, seeking to appeal to voters traumatized by Islamic State- inspired attacks that have killed at least 235 people in France since January 2015, by far the largest casualty figure of any Western country.
With the terror threat “higher than ever,” Interior Minister Matthias Fekl said “everything is being done” to secure the election, the candidates, their election headquarters and rallies.
He said more than 50,000 police officers, gendarmes and soldiers will be deployed in France and its overseas territories on Sunday and for the second- round vote on May 7.