Six men were arrested in a raid in several parts of Strasbourg, in Eastern France, Tuesday morning. Another man was arrested at dawn in central Clermont-Ferrand. They will be transferred and questioned at the headquarters of the DGSI, France’s security agency, in Paris.
An eighth person answered a summons, and voluntarily went to the DGSI for questioning.
Six of the men, aged 28 to 48 are Russian, another is Georgian. According to sources close to the investigation, some are connected to the Chechen community.
They were detained not for planning any immediate attack, but for “associating” with terrorists and “financing terrorism”, suspected of having sent funds to Iraq and Syria, possibly to finance terrorist activities.
Anti-terrorist police regularly bring people in for questioning for financing terrorism. In September 2020 some 30 people were detained as part of an operation to take down a crypto-currency network being used to fund Al-Qaida members and the Islamic State armed group in Syria. Eight people were charged.
Arrests in Denmark
Meanwhile, six men suspected of being members of the Islamic State or funding it were arrested in Denmark on Tuesday.
"Two of the people arrested… are suspected of penal code violations... for having travelled to Syria in 2014, where they were recruited by the terrorist organisation Islamic State," police said in a statement.
The four other suspects are accused of having acted as "intermediaries" and having sent money to the organisation.
Jihadism is considered the biggest threat to Denmark's national security, according to the PET intelligence service.
(with wires)
