(Paris) An Iranian national was arrested and taken into police custody on Friday after entering the Iranian consulate in Paris wearing a vest containing dummy grenades.
No explosive was found “neither in the premises of the consulate, nor in the vehicle” of the suspect, announced the Paris police headquarters, after the intervention of the Research and Intervention Brigade (BRI), a elite unit of the French police.
According to a police source, the man was wearing a vest with large pockets containing three dummy offensive grenades.
The Paris prosecutor’s office also told AFP that “no explosive material” had been found “at this stage, neither on him nor on site”.
“According to the first elements, this is a man born in 1963 in Iran,” continued the prosecution, adding that he had left the consulate “of his own accord” and that he “would have uttered threats of violent action”.
PHOTO THOMAS PADILLA, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The suspect was taken into custody. The investigation is open for “threat of death materialized by the wearing of a fake vest representing explosives”.
The investigations aim to “verify whether the elements constituting the offense are characterized and to understand the intention which motivated the suspect”, according to the prosecution.
Already convicted
“Verifications and reports are continuing in order to clarify the legal situation,” according to the same source.
Asked by AFP, the prosecution confirmed that this man had been tried by the Paris criminal court in immediate appearance in October 2023 for having set fire to tires in front of the gate of the Iranian embassy on September 9, an act he claimed in protest against the Iranian regime.
He was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment with suspended probation and a ban on appearing in the 16e district (West) of Paris, where the Iranian embassy is located, for two years, as well as a ban on carrying a weapon. He had appealed.
According to a source close to the case, his appeal trial is due to take place Monday afternoon in Paris.
Friday’s affair began around “11 a.m.” local time (5 a.m. Eastern time) with the report of a man who “would have been seen by a single witness entering the consulate, rue de Fresnel, carrying a a grenade or an explosive vest,” the police headquarters had previously reported to AFP.
At the beginning of the afternoon, a security perimeter was set up around the consulate. This and the Iranian embassy share the same building, but have different entrances: 4 avenue d’Iena for the embassy and 16 rue Fresnel for the consulate.
Traffic on metro lines 9 and 6 serving Trocadéro station, the closest to the scene, was interrupted, for security reasons, before resuming in the middle of the afternoon, RATP indicated on the social network x.
Paris police chief Laurent Nuñez mobilized, in addition to the BRI, significant police forces, noted an AFP journalist on site. The prefect was responding to a “request for intervention” from the consulate.
A little after 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. Eastern time), BRI men, over-equipped, helmets on their heads and weapons in their hands, left their belongings in an unmarked van before leaving the scene.
After the arrest of the suspect, the security system was gradually eased, according to the AFP journalist.
France raised its Vigipirate emergency attack system, to its highest level, after the attack perpetrated in March in Moscow in a performance hall.
reference: www.lapresse.ca