In France, two persons were found guilty of arms trafficking and imprisoned on Friday and they could face up to 10 years in jail. French police arrested five persons on 31 May but 2 others out of four were remain free, they will keep under judicial supervision and the fifth member of the group was released from the charges.
Prosecutor Edward Roux-Marizot in a presser on Friday said that “the suspects in the small group of were age between 45 and 53 and had jobs, noting that they were “citizens like any other”. She also said persons were not planning an attack, but with the large chunk of ammunition there was a fear they would “take action,”
However, Roux-Marizot previously said they had planned to “hunt Jews” during a football match in a soccer match in Strasbourg
The Group’s affiliation with Neo-Nazism was established through the literature which was found by police in the search. Literature has included material related to anti-Semitism and Holocaust-denialism. Police have also seized computer equipment for further investigation.
Police found a large chunk of weapons and ammunition in the Alsace region of France including 18 legal weapons, 23 illegal weapons, and 1 lakh 20 thousand ammunition in a search.
The weapons were classified as 72 Kalashnikovs, 167 Magazines, and ammunition of all calibers. Police also found three machines to make weapons, a banknote counter, four scales, two silencers, and 25 thousand euros.
France is the largest home of the Jewish community in all of Europe according to the office of the United Nations High Commissioner. A recent poll organized by the American Jewish Community in February found that a wide majority of the French-Jewish population feels that anti-Semitism is rising in France and it is a major concern for them.
Cases of anti-Semitism are growing by 75% in 2021, according to the Service de Protection de la Communaute Juive, a watchdog group. The watchdog noted 589 hate crimes against Jews in 2021, including a 36% rise in physical assaults over 2020.
However, France has ramped up its surveillance of domestic extremist groups in recent years, hoping to curtail hate crimes.
