https://www.rtl.be/actu/belgique/ju...s-auraient-tente-de/2024-03-17/article/649020
Three minors and one adult were arrested some 10 days ago. They planned to attack a Brussels theatre ... But not that. We found that they were also planning to attack the Eiffel Tower with explosives. Currently, several people are still wanted.
They do not know each other in reality, but speak for long hours of the Islamic State on the Signal application.
Some of the members of the group are looking for weapons on the darkweb, others are content with knives. A discussion is taking place on Friday 1 March. They wish to act the following Monday, as a source close to the file tells us: "The police report is communicated and taken into account on Saturday morning, given the concrete elements relating to the imminence of a move to take action. It is a question of hitting in Brussels on Monday evening. The operation was decided and implemented on Saturday and evening. The DSU (Directorate of Special Units) is set up in the night from Saturday to Sunday ".
During interrogations, anti-terrorism officers ask suspects if there were any targets other than the Le Botanique Theatre... And indeed, one of the projects was even bolder: attacking the Eiffel Tower.
"Some people were talking about meeting in Paris. They talked about putting explosives at the feet of the Eiffel Tower to fall. There was one who always talked about suicide attacks with ram trucks. It was the French who always spoke of this kind of attack," a source said.
Michel Degrève is a lawyer. According to him, this type of distance-learning relationship between radicalized young people who do not know each other is a classic pattern: "In this group, we observe in many young people who are in this movement that are out of school, marginalized and who regain a form of belonging in radical groups and movements that allow them to emancipate themselves socially".
One of the minors involved was arrested in Charleroi. At the age of 17, he came from a family practising the Catholic religion. The radicalized young man, who defines himself as a Salafist, has been frequenting a mosque for a year and a half, but he considers it too lax. A relative confides: "In just one year, his attitude changed: beard, long hair, prayer clothes. It became cold, distant, closed, moralizing. To those who feared religious radicalization, he swept away fears and tirelessly replied that he had simply found faith... ".
Currently, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office is still seeking to identify certain active profiles on the group, entitled "Dawlatal Islam Baqiyah", which means "The Islamic State will remain".
During the searches, no weapons or explosives were discovered, but the determination of young people to take action seems real. "They can start carrying out their act by looking, for example, for plans of the place where they have the attention to commit the attack or by seeking weapons to kill and injure. These acts are already the beginning of the execution of a terrorist attack, which has been announced earlier between them or on social networks", explains Henri Laquay, a lawyer specialising in criminal law.
Three minors and one adult were arrested some 10 days ago. They planned to attack a Brussels theatre ... But not that. We found that they were also planning to attack the Eiffel Tower with explosives. Currently, several people are still wanted.
They do not know each other in reality, but speak for long hours of the Islamic State on the Signal application.
Some of the members of the group are looking for weapons on the darkweb, others are content with knives. A discussion is taking place on Friday 1 March. They wish to act the following Monday, as a source close to the file tells us: "The police report is communicated and taken into account on Saturday morning, given the concrete elements relating to the imminence of a move to take action. It is a question of hitting in Brussels on Monday evening. The operation was decided and implemented on Saturday and evening. The DSU (Directorate of Special Units) is set up in the night from Saturday to Sunday ".
During interrogations, anti-terrorism officers ask suspects if there were any targets other than the Le Botanique Theatre... And indeed, one of the projects was even bolder: attacking the Eiffel Tower.
"Some people were talking about meeting in Paris. They talked about putting explosives at the feet of the Eiffel Tower to fall. There was one who always talked about suicide attacks with ram trucks. It was the French who always spoke of this kind of attack," a source said.
Michel Degrève is a lawyer. According to him, this type of distance-learning relationship between radicalized young people who do not know each other is a classic pattern: "In this group, we observe in many young people who are in this movement that are out of school, marginalized and who regain a form of belonging in radical groups and movements that allow them to emancipate themselves socially".
One of the minors involved was arrested in Charleroi. At the age of 17, he came from a family practising the Catholic religion. The radicalized young man, who defines himself as a Salafist, has been frequenting a mosque for a year and a half, but he considers it too lax. A relative confides: "In just one year, his attitude changed: beard, long hair, prayer clothes. It became cold, distant, closed, moralizing. To those who feared religious radicalization, he swept away fears and tirelessly replied that he had simply found faith... ".
Currently, the Federal Public Prosecutor's Office is still seeking to identify certain active profiles on the group, entitled "Dawlatal Islam Baqiyah", which means "The Islamic State will remain".
During the searches, no weapons or explosives were discovered, but the determination of young people to take action seems real. "They can start carrying out their act by looking, for example, for plans of the place where they have the attention to commit the attack or by seeking weapons to kill and injure. These acts are already the beginning of the execution of a terrorist attack, which has been announced earlier between them or on social networks", explains Henri Laquay, a lawyer specialising in criminal law.
