a man on file S suspected of having threatened several priests with death has been arrested

A man on file S was arrested on Tuesday February 7 in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, franceinfo learned on Wednesday from a source close to the investigation. He is suspected of having made death threats and insulted several priests.

At the end of the afternoon, the police – alerted by the staff of the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris – went to the scene to arrest the man in question. From a source familiar with the matter, he is a homeless man of Iranian origin, who has already been seen several times in the church since October. After repeatedly asking him to leave the premises, staff eventually called law enforcement.

Suspect already wanted

The man – already arrested in the past in particular for advocating terrorism – is accused of having uttered death threats in a place of worship and insults towards several priests on January 26 and February 6. More specifically, they are the priests of the parishes of Saint-Sulpice and Saint-Germain-des-Près. The victims filed a complaint.

Still from a source close to the case, the individual showed himself “aggressive”. The man – qualified as threatening – in particular spat on a vicar of one of the two parishes and also had a verbal altercation with a priest of one of the two parishes.

In addition to being on file S, he was wanted because he was staying irregularly in France. He is currently in custody. The third regional directorate of the judicial police is in charge of the investigation.