The General Intelligence Department (DGSI) has uncovered an online correspondence between two teenagers. According to information obtained by RTL and confirmed by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) on Friday May 17, an 18-year-old adult and a 15-year-old minor were arrested last week and charged with criminal terrorist association on Sunday May 12.
The two young people, who had ‘obviously been recruited to the jihadist movement’, had been discussing ‘short-term coordinated attack projects’, i.e. simultaneous attacks at different locations in France, for weeks, the public prosecutor’s office told RTL. They had been in contact with each other via social networks. One lives in the Grand-Est and the other in Occitania.
Investigators have yet to confirm the younger man’s actual intention to commit the offence. He had only been radicalised for a few months and had been attending Christian confirmation classes until recently, as RTL reported. He was not taken into custody. The intention of the older man, on the other hand, was more firmly established. He may have intended to attack ‘institutional’ targets. The 18-year-old is said to have endeavoured to acquire weapons. Both of the defendants’ lawyers were contacted by RTL and did not wish to comment on the incidents.