Five arrested in French anti-terror raids released

PARIS: Five people arrested in northern France last week as part of an investigation into a criminal terrorist conspiracy have been released without charge, a judicial source said on Monday.

Four of them, students aged between 20 and 23 years old, were released on Saturday and a fifth man, a student born in 2002, who the authorities identified as being radicalised, was released on Sunday.

They had been arrested following fears that some kind of attack was being planned. But a source close to the case said on Monday there was for the moment no new evidence to support that theory, even if the investigation was continuing.

Friday´s arrests took place in Nancy and two other towns in the Meurthe-et-Moselle department of northern France. The suspects, picked up by the intelligence services, belong to an Islamist movement, according to another source.

On Friday, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called on local authorities to “maintain extreme vigilance” over the Christmas and Epiphany festivities, due to the “very high level of terrorist threat that continues to exist”.

In October, France activated its highest level of emergency alert following the murder of Dominique Bernard, a French teacher stabbed to death by a radicalised former pupil in northern France.