A group of people with links to a French far-right group go on trial Tuesday accused of planning a series of violent acts, including the planned assassination of President Emmanuel Macron.
The 13 defendants – 11 men and two women, aged 26 to 66 years old – allegedly planned to attack Macron during the 2018 WWI armistice commemoration ceremony. They have been charged conspiring to commit a terrorist act.
Citing evidence collected online from monitored phone calls and meetings, prosecutors say the 13 also planned to kill migrants and attack mosques.
They have been presented as members of the Barjols (Crazies), an extreme-right nationalist and anti-immigration group formed on Facebook in 2017 that held secret meetings.
A defence lawyer, Lucile Collot, said the prosecution's case was based "on the fiction that a violent act was going to happen", calling the accusation of a planned terrorist act "misplaced".
Because none of the alleged plots were ever carried out, prosecutors downgraded some of the initial charges over the course of their four-year investigation.
Four-year investigation
The investigation started in 2018, when France's domestic intelligence services received a tip about a far-right militant based in the French Alps.
Jean-Pierre Bouyer was allegedly planning to attack Macron during the armistice commemoration ceremony in November of that year.
Bouyer was arrested on 6 November along with three others suspected of far-right links in the eastern French Moselle region.
A search of Bouyer's car revealed a commando-style knife and a military vest. They discovered firearms and ammunition in his home.
In posts on Facebook, Bouyer had called on his followers to "eliminate those who want to harm you" and called Macron "a little hysterical dictator".
During his detention, Bouyer told police that he had wanted to kill Macron, and hinted that one of his co-accused had hoped to approach the president during a meet-and-greet and stab him with a ceramic-bladed knife – though later he said the remarks had just been talk.
Police later arrested other members of the Barjols including its presumed leader, Denis Collinet, who is a proponent of the white supremacist "great replacement" theory that falsely claims that France’s native white, Catholic population is being replaced by non-white immigrants.
Plans to disrupt France
During their meetings, Barjols members allegedly planned to blow up mosques and kill Macron, as well as kidnap members of parliament and overthrow the government.
During some meetings group members conducted target practice and trained in first aid techniques.
Investigating magistrates filing their findings to the court said that it was "an established fact" that the group's plans "were entirely aimed at seriously disrupting the public order by intimidation and terror".
Defence lawyers have argued that someone who holds dissenting views of the government – even extreme ones – will actually go through with any attack or assassination.
The trial is set to run through 3 February.
(with AFP)
