French anti-terrorism prosecutors have charged a 20-year-old Afghan man with alleged ties to an offshoot of the Islamic State group, authorities announced on Saturday.
The suspect, arrested last week in Lyon, has been charged with participation in a criminal terrorist organization and financing a terrorist enterprise, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) said. According to PNAT, the man “clearly adhered to jihadist ideology” and is suspected of having contact with Islamic State-Khorasan, the group’s Afghan branch. Investigators believe he sent funds to the organization and helped translate and disseminate its propaganda materials.
The group, which operates primarily in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of Central Asia, has claimed responsibility for numerous deadly attacks, including the March 2024 assault on a Moscow concert hall that killed 150 people.
Citing investigative sources, Le Parisien reported that the Afghan national, who arrived in France several years ago, was detained by domestic intelligence agency DGSI officers while already being held in an administrative detention center in Lyon. The newspaper said he was previously under investigation for glorifying terrorism and was allegedly producing and sharing jihadist content on TikTok and Snapchat.
French Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin claimed in an interview with the media outlet Legend in May that the Islamic State in Khorasan (IS-K) has “sleeper cells” in France ready to carry out attacks. He warned that this Central Asia–based faction of ISIS now represents “the main terrorist threat.”
