PARIS (AP) — French anti-terror police have detained an alleged neo-Nazi sympathizer suspected of wanting to target the Olympic torch relay, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said Wednesday.
The Paris prosecutor’s office said the man was detained Wednesday morning at his home in the Alsace region of eastern France. It said he runs a group titled “French Aryan division” on the social media channel Telegram, and was detained for questioning about death threats, hate speech and other postings he allegedly made.
The prosecutor’s office said his alleged comments that triggered the probe by its unit dedicated to fighting online hate didn’t specifically target the Paris Olympics, which kick off with a high-security opening ceremony on July 26.
Darmanin, however, said: “There was a willingness to intervene during a stage, evidently, of the torch relay.”
The Olympic torch is nearing the end of its months-long trip around France and overseas French territories before the Games’ opening.
Darmanin, who is staying on in a caretaker role at the interior ministry until a new government is formed in the wake of legislative elections earlier this month, said the suspect has previously been flagged by police “for ultra-right ideas, which can be termed neo-Nazi.”
“We know that he had, a priori, a desire to hit political targets or people with immigrant backgrounds,” he said.
The prosecutor’s office said that as well as alleged death threats and posts inciting hate, the suspect is also being investigated on suspicion of having shared personal information that put people at risk and of sharing bomb-making instructions.
The French capital’s security operation for its first Olympic Games in a century involves up to 45,000 police and gendarmes, plus a 10,000-strong military force that is patrolling streets and sites in the Paris region and carrying out other security missions.