(Paris) A couple was charged in early May in Paris, suspected of having participated in assassination plans ordered by Iran and targeting Jewish people in Germany and France, AFP learned from police sources and sources close to the case.
Abdelkrim S., 34, and his partner Sabrina B., 33, were charged on May 4 with criminal terrorist association and placed in pretrial detention.
Their case, known as the “Marco Polo” affair and revealed on Thursday by the French website Mediapart, illustrates the resurgence in Europe of “Iranian state terrorism”, according to a summary from the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI), dating from the beginning of May and of which AFP has had knowledge.
“From 2015, the Iranian services have resumed a practice of targeted assassinations,” according to the French organization DGSI, which specifies that “the threat has further worsened […] in the context of the war between Israel and Hamas.”
Their objective: “to strike civilian targets” to “increase the feeling of insecurity within the opposition” to the Iranian regime and within “the Jewish/Israeli community”. To do this, Iran is accused of recruiting thugs in Europe, particularly drug traffickers.
Implicated in the “Marco Polo” affair, Abdelkrim S. was already known to the courts: sentenced to 10 years in prison for his involvement in a massacre in Marseille, he was released in July 2023 under judicial supervision.
This Franco-Algerian is suspected of being the “main operator” in France of a “cell” sponsored by Iran which was planning violent actions in Germany and France.
He was allegedly put in contact with the cell’s “coordinator” by a former cellmate. This “coordinator”, presented as a major drug trafficker from the Lyon region, was probably in Iran in May, according to the summary.
The targets identified so far: a former employee of an Israeli security company living in Paris and three of his former colleagues in the Paris region, as well as three Israeli-Germans in Munich and Berlin.
Abdelkrim S. is suspected of having travelled to Germany, despite his judicial supervision, to scout out locations, particularly in Berlin in the presence of his wife. He denies this, claiming that he only wanted to make purchases.
Investigators also blame this cell for four fires at businesses located in the south of France and “belonging to Israeli nationals”, between the end of December 2023 and the beginning of January 2024, according to a police source.
According to this source, in police custody, Abdelkrim S. denied having started the fire, but explained that he had been the intermediary between the instigator and other people on Telegram for an insurance scam project.