Cannes-Torcy cell

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The "Cannes-Torcy cell" was a jihadist network in France uncovered in 2012.[1] Eighteen members of the cell were sentenced from one to 28 years in prison in 2017.[2]

Jewish grocery store attack

Two members of the cell were first arrested after a grenade attack against a Jewish grocery store in Sarcelles in September 2012 that injured one person.[1] Police later found bomb-making equipment in a storage unit rented by Jeremie Bailly, the alleged leader of the group.[1] Another of the suspects, Muslim convert Jérémie Louis-Sidney, was killed in a police shootout on 6 October 2012 while resisting arrest. Three days after the shootout, police found "bags of potassium nitrate, sulfur, saltpeter, headlight bulbs and a pressure cooker" belonging to Louis-Sidney in an underground car park in Torcy, a suburb east of Paris.[3]

According to French officials, two other alleged members of the cell, French-Algerian Ibrahim Boudina and French-Tunisian Abdelkader Tliba, were found to have set off for Syria just days after the attack. According to the officials, after first having joined the

Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).[3] Having returned from Syria, Boudina was arrested on 11 February 2014 in Mandelieu-la-Napoule near Cannes. Police thereafter found "a handgun, bomb-making instructions, and three soda cans filled with the high-explosive compound TATP" in a storage closet belonging to Boudina.[3]

Trial

Twenty members of the network were tried by a special anti-terror tribunal in Paris in 2017. Of the twenty, ten were in prison, seven on conditional release, and three others at large, with two thought to be in Syria.

The court noted the diverse backgrounds of the twenty accusees, some being from affluent families and originating in Algeria, Laos and France.[2]

In June 2017, eighteen members of the cell were sentenced from one to 28 years in prison, while two were acquitted.

Cote d'Azur.[2] Abdelkader Tliba was tried in absentia, as he was still thought to be in Syria and to "have risen within the ranks of the Islamic State group."[4]

Seven of the convicted had connections to the Torcy mosque which was closed on 11 April 2017 for inciting jihadism.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Suspects linked to 'Cannes-Torcy' terror cell face French court". website. AFP. 20 April 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "French terror cell members sentenced over Jewish grocery attack". The Local. AFP. 23 June 2017.
  3. ^ a b c Cruickshank, Paul (28 August 2014). "Raid on ISIS suspect in the French Riviera". CNN.
  4. ^ "20 members of French jihadist cell to face trial". Yahoo News. AFP. 13 November 2015. Archived from the original on 4 November 2018. Retrieved 4 August 2017.
  5. ^ "Filière jihadiste de Cannes-Torcy: jusqu'à 28 ans de prison". L'Obs (in French). Retrieved 2018-11-04.