French soldier arrested over plans to attack mosque in Lyon

 French police arrested a soldier over plans to attack a mosque in the city of Lyon. The man is described as having close ties “to the radical far-right”. Relatives contacted police after finding suspicious documents in his possession.

Midday prayers on the first day of Ramadan Reuters/Vincent Kessler

According to  information released by the interior ministry on Sunday, the 23 year old was detained at his airbase near Lyon. He was remanded in custody last Wednesday and charged with possession of ammunition and plans to damage a place of worship “in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.

Speaking to investigators, the young soldier revealed his plan to fire shots at the Minguettes mosque at Venisseux, a suburb of Lyon, on the final day of the holy month of Ramadan (Eid al-Fitr) last Thursday.

He also admitted to throwing a molokov cocktail last August at a mosque door in southwestern Libourne.

In reaction to the news of his detainment, the Muslim community said it is extremely fearful of an increase in such attacks.

“Luckily, he was caught just in time, if not, the day of Eid would have been a day of carnage, after there were already some riots”, said Kamel Arioua, president of the Essalem association that supervises the mosques in Minguettes.

“The fact that he is from the military shocks me, since they are the ones who are supposed to set an example for all to follow. They are there to protect the French people, not to fire at them” Arioua added.

“The government has to take ownership of its responsibilities. The banning of all the nationalist movements is pushing people to make rash and unilateral decisions” said Alexandre Gabriac, a regional consultant and former president of the Young Nationalists –an extreme right group that was banned earlier this summer by the French government.

“Our groups give people a venue to express their anger and work towards changing our political foundation….but these types of isolated incidents will become more and more frequent”, added Gabriac.