Christmas attack plan foiled: one of the suspects already convicted of terrorism in 2019

Two 23-year-old men were indicted for “criminal terrorist association” and remanded in early December. One of the two accused had already been sentenced in 2019 to a prison sentence, for acts of terrorism.

Police officers from the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) arrested two 23-year-old men on November 29, in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne) and Pecq (Yvelines) as part of a preliminary investigation opened by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) a few days before. The latter were indicted 96 hours later for “criminal terrorist association” before being imprisoned. They are suspected of having planned a terrorist attack with a knife, for the Christmas period, against a background of radical Islam.

The two accomplices are claim from the Islamic State (IS) group. Several places were mentioned, including shopping centers, one of which is located in the Parisian suburbs, or even crowded streets. The duo then wanted to die as a “martyr”, being shot by the police during their intervention.

One of the two suspects is not unknown to justice according to the Terrorism Analysis Center (CAT). El Houssein K. was indeed sentenced in 2019 to 4 years’ imprisonment, 18 of which was closed by the children’s court. He was already considering a knife attack at the time. “He was prosecuted for his participation in Telegram channels in which Ines Madani participated”, adds the CAT. The latter was condemned to 30 years in prison for the failed attack in front of Notre-Dame cathedral, on the night of September 3 to 4, 2016. With his accomplices, they tried to detonate a car filled with gas canisters.

“This would be the first case of terrorist recurrence on the part of an outgoing convicted since 2014 in the framework of the Syrian-Iraqi jihadist networks”, specifies the CAT, which underlines “The importance and effectiveness of the monitoring of prisoners leaving prison by the DGSI”.

He was being prosecuted for his participation in Telegram channels in which Ines Madani participated in particular, convicted of an attempted bombing with a car bomb near Notre-Dame de #Paris in September 2016 (2/3)

– CAT (@CAT_Centre) December 8, 2021

“We are ready to humiliate you, to make you suffer”

El Houssein K. was a victim of meningitis at the age of 14 in 2011 says The Parisian. The illness would have made him easily influenced and susceptible to jihadist propaganda. Several of his writings had been discovered by investigators. After the attacks of November 13, he wrote in particular: “We are ready to humiliate you, to make you suffer and to kill you at any time / The 8 brothers (may Allah grant them paradise) made you suffer, offered you here dead, and this beneficent act with Allah is only the beginning of a long list J (…) You wanted to insult our prophet Mohammed, we killed those responsible! “.

The rest of the investigations will have to show whether El Houssein K. has reoffended, but also to clarify the exact responsibilities of his accomplice in this terrorist project.