They are three who were interrogated by the DGSI on April 26, 2019, after being apprehended by the security forces. Alexandre B., Karim B. and Majid X. all admitted to plotting an attack on the Elysée Palace. “A team in each end of the Rue de l’Élysée. That’s how we’ll take them on (…). The surprise effect will work in our favour when it comes to taking the piss out of people,” Karim B. wrote on April 4, 2019, among other things. A terrible plan that was stopped by Abu Bakr, the fourth member of the group and undercover investigator. The police officer, Le Parisien reports, is a member of the very secret SIAT – Service interministériel d’assistance technique. He posed as a future jihadist for months and thus gained the trust of his accomplices.
The profile of 39-year-old Alexandre B. was first discovered by the DGSI. As a stadium guard on behalf of the Paris city administration, he repeatedly called for jihad on social networks and shared the cruellest videos of the terrorist militia Islamic State’s acts of violence. The alarmed DGSI managed to penetrate a chat where Alexandre B. was very active. A first undercover investigator, who only works digitally, gains the stadium warden’s trust. The latter confided in him that he wanted to “leave a trace with a few bullet casings here and there” and claimed that “what the brothers had done in the Bataclan and the Stade de France was top, it causes a lot of damage”.
A meeting was soon planned between several members of the group to locate weapons. The DGSI was forced to drop the case as it was legally unable to organise a face-to-face meeting. Abou Bakr, the code name of an experienced SIAT agent, entered the scene. This is the beginning of “Operation Khalil”. Abu Bakr and Alexandre B. become friends, one gaining the trust of the other. The stadium guard confides in his new partner that he has plans for coordinated action with “other brothers”. A few days later, on March 27, 2019, Alexandre B. introduces Karim B. to the SIAT agent and mentions the existence of a fourth person, Majid, who is only 17 years old and is placed in a home where he pretends to have discarded his Islamist ideology.
In the following days, Le Parisien reports, matters began to accelerate. The conspirators agreed to target the Elysée Palace, having previously considered attacking a police station or the CRS. On April 4, the four men met for the first time and agreed to split into two teams armed with assault rifles. The plan is simple: “First attack to summon the infidel army and second attack on this infidel army (…) until the Shahid (martyrdom, editor’s note)”, explains Alexandre B. The three terrorists are in a hurry: Majid wants to act even before the beginning of Ramadan.
It is therefore only natural that Abu Bakr offers to supply the weapons. Thanks to his true identity, he receives two – in reality unusable – assault rifles, which he allegedly procured through contacts with arms dealers. On April 19, the penultimate action takes place: Abu Bakr meets Alexandre B. and Karim B., who entrust him with 2,000 euros in cash to pay for the weapons. That same evening, the three proto-terrorists exchange plans of the Elysee Palace via Telegram and cheer each other on. Finally, on April 24, Abu Bakr called his companions to a false hideout, which was of course surrounded by the police. Under the pretext of showing them the weapons, he gathered Karim and Alexandre around him – Majid had not managed to leave his home in time. In the evening, the three men were finally arrested. The judiciary approves the SIAT operations, although the lawyers of the would-be jihadists complain. Operation Khalil: over.
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