Police have obtained fresh evidence of a plot to carry out a chemical weapons attack in France in late 2002 following a series of police raids last week, Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy said Tuesday. He told parliament the conspiracy was confirmed by some of those arrested in a Lyon suburb during interrogation by the DST domestic intelligence agency. Chellali Benchellali, imam of a mosque in the Venissieux suburb, his wife, a son and three others were placed under official investigation Monday by anti-terrorist magistrates. They were investigating plans to attack Russian interests in France, including Moscow’s embassy in Paris, as a reprisal for Russian actions in its rebel Chechnya province. “Police discovered that false identity papers were being traded in (Benchellali’s) mosque, that people were being recruited for Jihad (Holy struggle) there, and that some of those now locked up had been involved in robbery and deception,” Sarkozy said during ministers’ questions. Full Story
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