French national suspected of planning terror attack arrested in Rotterdam
A 32-year-old French national was arrested in Rotterdam by Dutch police on suspicion of planning a terror attack. According to French police sources, the man is thought to have been planning an attack in France in the name of the Islamic State armed group along with Reda Kriket, a terror suspect who was detained near Paris last week.
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The suspect arrested in Rotterdam had at one point travelled to Syria to wage jihad, the same source added.
The Dutch police also arrested three other suspects during the operation on Sunday, including two Algerian men aged 43 and 47 years.
“French authorities on Friday requested the arrest of this French national,” the Dutch prosecutor's office said in a statement, adding that the man was suspected “of preparing a terrorist attack”.
Last week, French police had arrested 34-year-old Kriket in Argenteuil, northwest of Paris, and police uncovered explosives at his home.
According to the French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the arrest of Kriket had “foiled a planned attack in France, which was at an advanced stage.”
According to police sources, Kriket had been found guilty in absentia in Brussels in July last year of being part of a network recruiting jihadists to Syria and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
There were related arrests on the weekend in Belgium as well. Belgian police charged two men with involvement in a terrorist group over the foiled French plot linked to Kriket.
- with AFP
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