{"id":1725,"date":"2026-04-02T06:09:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/1725\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T06:09:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T06:09:05","slug":"three-minors-among-four-charged-over-foiled-attack-at-bank-of-america-paris-branch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/1725\/","title":{"rendered":"Three minors among four charged over foiled attack at Bank of America Paris branch"},"content":{"rendered":"

French authorities Wednesday charged a young man and three minors in connection with an attempted attack<\/a> against a Bank of America branch in Paris<\/a>, as investigators explored suspicions a pro-Iran<\/a> group was involved.<\/p>\n

The plot, thwarted before dawn on Saturday, came more than a month after US-Israeli strikes on Iran sparked a regional war<\/a>, sending energy<\/a> markets into a tailspin.<\/p>\n

A source following the case, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the man in his early twenties from a Paris suburb had been charged with “terrorist criminal conspiracy” and remanded in custody.<\/p>\n

Read moreFrance foils Paris bomb plot outside US bank, opens anti-terror probe<\/a><\/p>\n

French counter-terrorism<\/a> prosecutors suspect he asked teenagers to place an explosive device outside the US financial institution near the famed Champs-Elysees avenue.<\/p>\n

The investigation suggested he recruited three minors the night of Thursday to Friday, offering to pay them 500 to 1,000 euros ($580 to $1,160) for the job, the National Counterterrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT) said earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

After a failed attempt that night, “two of three minors tried again the following night”, it said.<\/p>\n

The man’s lawyer did not wish to comment when asked by AFP.<\/p>\n

Police arrested the three minors over the course of the past few days and they have been remanded in custody.<\/p>\n

The lawyers for one of them criticised PNAT for divulging to the press “a detailed synthesis of the case even before the investigative magistrates and the lawyers had been informed”.<\/p>\n

Lawyers representing another of the minors declined to comment, while lawyers for a third said their client had “excellent school results” and there was “no element indicating a terrorist intention”.<\/p>\n

A source close to the case said that “the minors know each other; they are from Montreuil (just outside Paris). The adult, who was hanging around the neighbourhood, had already given them paid jobs.”<\/p>\n

“The teenagers said they had been pressured by the adult,” another source close to the case added.<\/p>\n

The PNAT says the incident could be linked to a little-known Islamist group with possible links to Iran, though no firm link has yet been established.<\/p>\n

The Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamiya (HAYI) group, meaning The Islamic Movement of the People of the Right Hand, has claimed responsibility for attacks targeting the Jewish community in the United Kingdom<\/a>, Belgium<\/a> and the Netherlands<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Police had on Monday last week been informed of a HAYI propaganda video on social media “specifically targeting the French headquarters” of Bank of America, the PNAT said.<\/p>\n

The adult suspect told investigators “a third party, presenting themself as an intermediary, had approached him via a social network’s messaging service to have the explosive device planted as part of a personal vendetta”, it said.<\/p>\n

“The explosive device was allegedly delivered to his home by a person he did not know,” it added.<\/p>\n

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"French authorities Wednesday charged a young man and three minors in connection with an attempted attack against a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1726,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[313,5,246,30,64],"class_list":{"0":"post-1725","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-banking","9":"tag-france","10":"tag-investigation","11":"tag-paris","12":"tag-terrorism"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}