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The Paris Criminal Court is set to open the trial this Tuesday of sixteen far-right activists accused of plotting violent attacks against Muslims in France between 2017 and 2018. The defendants, members of the group known as Action des Forces Opérationnelles (AFO), are being prosecuted while free, following an anti-terrorism judge’s order in August 2024 to bring them before the court.
The thirteen men and three women face charges of criminal conspiracy with intent to commit terrorist acts and illegal weapons possession, with varying levels of involvement.
According to the investigating judges' order, AFO was a «hierarchical and structured» organization that planned to carry out «concrete violent actions in symbolic places of Islam». The group’s stated aim was to «raise awareness (...) of the risk of Islamist infiltration» and to «restore the heritage» of their ancestors for future generations.
Among the planned attacks was a so-called «halal operation», which involved disguising AFO women in niqabs to poison food in the halal sections of supermarkets using cyanide or rat poison, thereby harming consumers and «discrediting halal food». Other plots included assassinating «200 radicalized imams» and bombing the entrance of a mosque in Hauts-de-Seine.
Targets also included rapper Médine, Islamic scholar Tariq Ramadan, «Arab cars» into which grenades would be thrown, and a plot to «detonate a couscous pot remotely».
A retired officer of the French national police is identified as the group’s founder, though he «strongly denies having planned any violent actions», according to his lawyers, Lucile Collot and Olivia Ronen.
His partner ran the blog Réveil patriote, the group’s main propaganda platform. Another defendant, a 61-year-old night teleoperator for a taxi company, was described as a firearms and survivalist enthusiast. He told investigators he was a «patriot», «ready to take up arms for his threatened country», and believed a civil war was imminent.
During searches, authorities found firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition, and components for making TATP explosives.
