From AFP via the Times of Israel and Le Monde
A 22-year-old engineering student and his 20-year-old brother have been arrested in France over a “deadly and antisemitic” plot, anti-terror prosecutors say.
The two brothers, who are of Italian and Moroccan nationality, were arrested on Tuesday in northern France, the national anti-terror prosecutor’s office (PNAT) says.
The pair are said to have arrived in France with their parents in 2017, after the family spent several years in Italy.
While in police custody, they admitted that “they had been planning a terror attack in France for which they aspired to martyrdom,” the PNAT says in a statement.
The brothers, identified only as Elyasse H. and Moad H., were arrested while in a car near a prison in the northern town of Longuenesse after the report of a drone flying over the jail.
Inside their vehicle, police officers discovered a semi-automatic weapon, a bottle of hydrochloric acid, aluminium foil and a flag of the Islamic State jihadist group stretched across the headrest of the driver’s seat.
Prosecutors said the analysis of the seized materials indicated that the two brothers had been radicalized over the past two years and had taken steps towards committing “a terror plot whose deadly and antisemitic nature appears to be established.”
They said the brothers had allegedly plotted to commit a crime in France because it was not possible to travel to Syria or Palestine to “wage jihad.”
A video pledging allegiance to the Islamic State group, made by Moad H. earlier this month, was also discovered. He appears to be “in contact with several individuals who are radicalised or under investigation or convicted of a terrorist offence,” the PNAT said.
