Euro 2016 French terror plot suspect's dossier in court - Ukrainian Security Service
KYIV. Nov 22 (Interfax) - The head of the Ukrainian Security Service, Vasyl Hrytsak, has confirmed that the criminal inquiry against a French citizen who had been plotting a series of terror attacks on the eve of Euro 2016 has been completed.
"I can confirm that the criminal inquiry with respect to the French citizen who was preparing a series of terror attacks on the eve of Euro 2016 has been duly completed and forwarded to a court by the Ukrainian Security Service," Hrytsak said at a briefing in Kyiv on Tuesday.
He did not say which court is hearing the case.
"We investigated the case, it is in court. I am convinced that this man will get a real prison term," the security chief said.
On June 6 the head of the Ukrainian Security Service stated that security officers had conducted an operation in May, which resulted in the foiling of a series of terror attacks on French territory during the Euro 2016 football championship. In particular, a French citizen, Gregoire M., was arrested on suspicion of plotting the attacks, he had been looking for ways to buy weapons and explosives in Ukraine. Hrytsak said that the attacks' possible targets included a mosque, a synagogue and government and administrative buildings.
On the same day the French newspaper "Le Figaro" reported that French authorities had launched an inquiry against a French citizen arrested on suspicion of plotting attacks during Euro 2016, and entrusted it to the central office for combating organized crime and the regional criminal investigation service in the French town of Nancy.
On June 8 the Ukrainian Security Service posted on YouTube fragments of conversations between the French terror suspect (named as Moutaux) and a Ukrainian citizen, in which they discussed, in particular, preparations for "a certain operation" and the smuggling of explosives.
On June 14 the French newspaper "Le Parisien" reported that law enforcement officers in the French town of Stainnville had arrested a suspected accomplice of the French man arrested on May 21 during an attempt to smuggle an arsenal of weapons across the Ukrainian-Polish border. Thus, according to the newspaper, Eric G., the suspected accomplice of Gregoire M., may have been with the French man on the Polish border in the summer of 2014 for a handover of smuggled weapons.
In late October the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office sent an indictment to judges charging the French man with illegal acquisition and smuggling of weapons and plotting a terror attack during Euro 2016 in France. The criminal case was investigated by the Main Investigative Directorate of the Ukrainian Security Service and is being prosecuted by the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office.
