France charges teen over ‘imminent terror attack’ plot

French authorities have charged an 18-year-old man on suspicion of planning an imminent terror attack with a knife in the name of Islamic State (IS) jihadists, a judicial source said on Wednesday.

Published: 25 May 2022 17:04 CEST

France charges teen over 'imminent terror attack' plot

Illustration photo by BERTRAND GUAY / AFP

Initial investigations indicated that he planned to carry out a terror attack “in the name of IS, to which he had pledged allegiance,” said the source, who asked not to be named, adding that the man had been detained in the Drome region of southeast France and charged in Paris.

The source added that the man had been detained in the Drome region of southeast France and charged in Paris.

The man, from a Muslim family, had adopted extremist views and was considered a threat, sparking France’s anti-terror prosecutors office (PNAT) to open an investigation on May 19, a source close to the case said.

Police arrested him on Friday and a video of him swearing allegiance to IS was found in his possession.

The source did not say whom he was planning to target in the attack or in which location.

France saw a wave of jihadist attacks from 2015 that left hundreds dead and pushed the country to its highest level of security alert.

There has been no repeat of a mass atrocity in the last years, but there have been several deadly attacks carried out by lone individuals

More to follow

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In 2022, Brigitte Macron filed a complaint for libel against two women who posted a YouTube video in December 2021 alleging she had once been a man named “Jean-Michel”.

The claim went viral just weeks before the 2022 presidential election.

Brigitte Macron will not attend the hearing on Wednesday and is to be instead represented by her lawyer Jean Ennochi, he told AFP on Tuesday.

Neither he nor Brigitte Macron’s team wished to comment before the start of the trial.

Macron, 46, has lashed out at the false information spread about his wife.

He addressed the rumours on International Women’s Day, saying, “the worst thing is false information”.

“People eventually believe them and disturb you, even in your private life,” he said.

The first lady’s daughter from her first marriage, Tiphaine Auziere, has said she hopes the trial could quash the “grotesque” rumours.

Messages have multiplied on social media claiming that the 71-year-old first lady, formerly Brigitte Trogneux, is a trans woman whose name at birth was “Jean-Michel.”

The two women targeted in the lawsuit, one a self-proclaimed spiritual medium and the other an independent journalist, posted the video along with pictures of the first lady and her family on YouTube in December 2021.

The false claim also led to more serious accusations of child abuse brought against France’s first lady.

The disinformation targeting Macron’s wife has even spread to the United States where she was attacked in a now deleted YouTube video ahead of the November elections.

Brigitte Macron is among a group of influential women – including former US first lady Michelle Obama and New Zealand ex-premier Jacinda Ardern – who have fallen victim to the growing trend of disinformation about their gender or sexuality to mock or humiliate them.

The president’s relationship with his wife 24 years his senior, whom he met while she was a teacher and he was still a teenager, has been a source of media attention in France and abroad.