A Belgian woman suspected of involvement in a foiled plot to attack Bank of America’s Paris headquarters in late March was released this week under judicial supervision, a source close to the case said on Saturday.
She is one of two Belgian nationals sought under a European arrest warrant in the case and handed over to the French authorities this summer, before being placed under formal investigation in Paris and remanded in custody.
“My client, who is 24 and has no criminal record, has said from her first interview that she knew nothing about this plot, and there is no evidence linking her to any violent ideology,” her lawyer, Werner-Édouard de Saeger van Nattenhaesdonck, told AFP.
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The attack plan was thwarted by police intervention. In April, France’s national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said it “appears likely” to be linked to the pro-Iranian group Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya, or Hayi, although that had not been formally established.
In March, the group claimed responsibility for several attacks against the Jewish community in Belgium, the UK and the Netherlands.
According to the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office, the Bank of America plot involved placing a homemade explosive device outside the building and having teenagers recruited for the operation film it in exchange for payment of between €500 and €1,000.
Three teenagers are suspected of making a first attempt on the night of 26 to 27 March, but were reportedly deterred by a marked police vehicle outside the premises.
Two of them are accused of trying again the following night before being stopped by police.
Prosecutors said the device could have produced “a large fireball several metres in diameter and spread a fire.”
Earlier this autumn, one of the minors held in pre-trial detention in the case was released under electronic tagging.
