The hearing of four young ultra-right-wing men suspected of plotting terrorist attacks between 2017 and 2018 began in Paris on Monday.
The men, now aged between 22 and 28, are accused of planning attacks on mosques, the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions in France (CRIF) and the French headquarters of The International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra) in Tours.
One of the co-accused said they also planned to target a concert at the Bataclan by French rapper Médine – whom the far right accuse of pandering to Islamism – and meetings of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, founder of the hard left France Unbowed party.
Since one of the defendants was 17 at the time of the accusations, the men are appearing before the special juvenile assize court in Paris.
A fifth protagonist, aged just 14 at the time, was already tried in a juvenile court in December 2022 and handed a two-year suspended sentence.
Neo-Nazi ideology
According to the prosecution, the five young men, steeped in "neo-Nazi" ideology, were part of a private forum called "projet WaffenKraft" (firepower), set up by the then 17-year old.
Judges said their discussions quickly drifted towards planning terrorist projects under the impetus of Alexandre Gilet, a volunteer deputy gendarme at the time.
He was arrested in September 2018 after ordering explosive device precursors.
Police found weapons at his home in the French Alps, including two Kalashnikovs, ammunition, laboratory equipment and products for making explosives.
They also found photographs and videos of him training to use his weapons and homemade explosives, and group training sessions in the forest.
This led to the arrest of four people between October 2018 and May 2019: a 17-year old from the Tours region, Gauthier Faucon, the 25-year-old son of a soldier nicknamed "Panzer", Evandre Aubert, a 23-year-old from Ardèche, and a 14-year-old schoolboy.
The case was referred to anti-terrorism magistrates after investigators found Gilet had searched online for what appeared to be targets and discovered a "manifesto" for acts of terrorism.
Diary of hatred
Gilet was remanded in custody in December 2018.
His lawyer, Fanny Vial, dismissed the term “manifesto” saying her client had written a "diary of hatred" that was never published and of which he is now ashamed.
She also said it was a caricature to describe him as the leader since he did not recruit anyone, and always said he wasn't going to act".
The hearing, which continues through to 30 June, is the first far-right terrorist case to be held in an assize court in France.
Previous cases, such as the 2023 “Barjols” Facebook group, accused of having plotted to assassinate Emmanuel Macron, have been tried in the magistrates' court.
The Paris anti-terrorism centre has opened a dozen or so proceedings linked to the ultra-right in recent years.
