Two men, aged 21 and 17, one of whom is a successful student of law, were indicted on March 5 and June 16 on suspicion of preparing a planned violent action. According to the DGSI investigation, various targets were allegedly considered.
[…]
Despite the terrorist organization’s loss of influence in the Middle East and the diminishing impact of its propaganda, the two Frenchmen, aged 17 and 21, from the Alpes-Maritimes and Seine-Saint-Denis, allegedly planned a knife attack against various targets: Civilians, personalities designated as opponents of Islam, or churches.
[…]
The minor with the first name A.N., follower of a radical Islam and socially isolated, is said to have confided to his virtual interlocutors that the desire matured in him to carry out an indiscriminate knife attack “against everyone”.
When he was arrested at his home in early March, the police officers seized stabbing weapons and a patch with the insignia of the Islamic State (IS) organization. They also discover that A.N. is in contact with numerous similarly radicalized youths across Europe in the jihadist scene: the UK, Belgium, Switzerland … All these sympathizers of the jihadist cause have one thing in common: they are young or very young, have little or no contact with jihadists in the Iraqi-Syrian zone and are very active online. Several of them, by the way, have been arrested in their respective countries thanks to information sharing between intelligence agencies.
[…]
In his writings, Samy O.-M. harbors an obsession about the “need to strike a blow” against those he sees as hostile to his devout religion. Even more disturbing, investigators found a handwritten plan of a church in Paris in his home. The religious building could not be identified at this time. However, the document suggests that Catholic institutions were also targeted. Le Parisien