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French teen charged over plot to attack synagogues, public gatherings

By AFP
June 23, 2025
A French police officer stands guard in front of the Synagogue of Sarcelles, Pariss suburb, on October 11, 2023, after recent Hamas attacks in Israel. — AFP
A French police officer stands guard in front of the Synagogue of Sarcelles, Paris's suburb, on October 11, 2023, after recent Hamas attacks in Israel. — AFP

PARIS: French prosecutors have charged and jailed a 17-year-old Islamic State group sympathiser suspected of planning attacks on synagogues, sex shops and public gatherings, the national anti-terror office said on Sunday.

“He was not yet at the stage of carrying out an attack, but he was getting ready,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said earlier on the LCI news channel. The suspect was arrested on Tuesday, prosecutors told AFP. Defence lawyer Florian Godest Le Gall told AFP his client was a “troubled boy pushing who was testing the boundaries of what is forbidden”.

“There is no real targeting of specific sites or actual intent to act,” he said. “There is a lot to clarify, particularly around his mental state and vulnerability,” he added, ruling out any “true radicalisation”.