Three teenagers aged 15 to 17, suspected of having been in contact with the four men arrested on Sunday in Belgium for a planned attack in Brussels, were arrested on Monday in three cities in France, we learned on Tuesday from source close to the file.
The three minors were not directly involved in the foiled attack plan against a concert hall in Brussels, but they adhered to Islamist theories, the same source added, confirming information from the Journal du Dimanche.
It was noted, from a source close to the case, that the three minors were arrested by investigators from the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) for terrorist association.
Their custody can last 96 hours.
They would have been in virtual contact with the men arrested in Belgium.
A threat “imminent enough to intervene”
On Sunday, Belgian police arrested four men - "three minors in their late teens" and an 18-year-old young man - during searches carried out in Brussels, Ninove, Charleroi and Liège, explained the spokesperson for the Belgian federal prosecutor's office. Eric Van Der Sypt.
He added that they were suspected “of planning a terrorist attack in Belgium”.
According to RTBF, these arrests resulted from a police operation aimed at identifying people “potentially violent and suspected of being linked to Islamist extremism”.
No weapons or explosives were found.
Police seized mobile phones and laptops for analysis, according to the federal prosecutor's office.
The messages exchanged by the four suspects were “sufficiently worrying for us to intervene and carry out searches,” declared Éric Van Der Sypt.
“It's not that they were planning something for tomorrow, but it was imminent enough to intervene,” he continued.
The relative youth of the suspects reinforced the authorities' distrust.
“They are very flexible.
If someone gives them a gun, for example, things can happen very, very quickly.
We therefore do not want to take any risks,” the spokesperson said.