Two teenagers have been arrested and charged with plotting a terrorist attack on unspecified Jewish targets in Paris, AFP reported on Saturday, citing a judicial source.
According to the source, who spoke to the agency on condition of anonymity, the 19-year-old man was charged on Friday. He was accused of “terrorist conspiracy” to commit attacks and the “acquisition and possession of arms for a terrorist enterprise.” His accomplice, who is still a minor, was detained on Wednesday.
The pair, who reportedly met on social media, were planning a violent action “notably aiming at Jewish targets,” the source said, without providing further details.
The development comes just days after three boys aged 12 to 13 were charged with raping a 12-year-old Jewish girl in an alleged anti-Semitic attack in a Paris suburb last week. The attackers reportedly insulted the victim’s religion and threatened to kill her if she reported the crime.
The growing number of cases involving young people planning attacks has sparked concerns among French politicians and anti-terrorist investigators, who claim that assaults targeting the Jewish community in France have grown four-fold since 2022.
“This is a necessarily worrying phenomenon,” senior anti-terrorist prosecutor Olivier Christen said at an evidentiary hearing on Wednesday.
Caroline Maury, secretary-general of the Jewish collective Nous Vivrons (We Will Live), said France has become a dangerous place for Jews after the war between Israel and Hamas broke out in October 2023.
“It’s terrifying to see that once again in France, in 2024, we can be physically attacked because we are Jewish,” she said following the violent assault last week, arguing that with the victim and suspects being so young, “a new threshold has been reached.”
Maury added that in light of the recent attacks, many Jews are considering leaving France, which has the third biggest Jewish community after Israel and the US.
“There’s a lot of fear. I think Jews are afraid and it’s legitimate, it’s not a question of paranoia. There’s been a terrifying reality since October 7,” she said.