PARIS: A Russian national living in the capital city of France for the last 14 years has been arrested on suspicion of plotting to disrupt the Paris Olympics 2024, local media reported.
The mega sporting event is set to begin here with an opening ceremony that features a boat parade on the Seine River on Friday.
The 40-year-old man, a former reality TV star trained at a Parisian culinary school, had boasted of disrupting the opening ceremony of the Olympics, before he was arrested on July 21, French newspaper Le Monde reported.
According to the French publication, the arrested man is an agent of the Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian Internal Security and counter-intelligence service.
The man was arrested from his residence in Paris, Le Monde said citing the Paris prosecutor’s office said. Evidence that the man was involved in the plot has been found at his home, according to the newspaper. It said that according to several European intelligence services, a map of an elite Russian special forces unit, acting under the command of the FSB, was found in his home.
As per Le Monde intelligence services had listened into a call two months ago between the man and a Russian intelligence services handler in which the suspect had stated that “the French are going to have an opening ceremony like there has never been before”.
On July 23, a judicial investigation was opened into “intelligence with a foreign power with a view to provoking hostilities in France,” and the arrested man was indicted on the same day and remanded in custody. He could face 30 years in prison according to the prosecutor’s office.
The Olympic Games are being held even as the war between Russia and Ukraine as well as the Israel-Hamas conflict continues. The most watched sporting events are being held amidst tight security.
Some 30,000 police officers and gendarmes will walk the streets in Paris every day throughout the Olympics as the capital’s police deploy all of its resources to prevent various threats, from terrorist attacks to cybercrime, Le Monde reported. (ANI)