France Arrests Muslim Russians over New Terror Attack Plot
France arrested five Russians Tuesday accused of plotting a new attack as four men suspected of helping the gunmen behind the Paris shootings were brought before anti-terrorist judge.
European nations, on high alert after the attacks that shook France to its core, have launched a wave of raids targeting suspected jihadist cells.
French prosecutors said five Russians from the restive Muslim republic of Chechnya had been detained near the southern city of Montpellier suspected of plotting an attack.
No further details about their plans were immediately available.
Counter-terrorism experts have warned that “thousands” of Russian-speaking Muslims from former Soviet Central Asian countries have joined ISIS – at least some of whom have returned home.
Meanwhile, prosecutors have called for charges against four men suspected of helping supply weapons and vehicles to the Islamist gunmen [terrorists] who killed 17 people in three days of carnage around Paris.
The four, who are appearing before a anti-terrorist judge, would be the first to face charges over the January 7-9 terrorist attacks, the worst in France in decades.
There has been a flurry of activity by police and prosecutors across a jittery Europe, including raids by some 200 German police hunting a jihadist network they believed was planning an attack in Syria.
The Germans searched 13 apartments in Berlin and other locations, seeking people linked to the alleged leader and financier of the group who had been detained on Friday.
Greece also ordered the extradition of a 33-year-old Algerian man with suspected links to yet another jihadist cell dismantled by Belgian security forces last week over claims it was plotting to kill police officers.
The suspect, who has said he is willing to be sent to Belgium because he wants to prove his innocence, will be extradited later Tuesday or Wednesday, according to a Belgian security source.
The man was arrested in Athens on Saturday, two days after Belgian police had carried out a raid in the eastern town of Verviers and shot dead two suspects.
Belgian investigators believe the group were preparing to attack police officers and police stations in Belgium.
According to police, the suspect in Athens has served a jail term in Greece for a robbery conviction but was released nearly a year ago Another man who was arrested with him in the Greek capital was released.
The suspected mastermind of the plot, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a 27-year-old Belgian of Moroccan descent, remains at large.
And in Bulgaria, a court ruled that a Frenchman who knew two of the Paris attackers should be returned to his home country.
