The Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) reported that four men aged 26 to 38 were detained on October 13 by officers of the Directorate General of Internal Security (DGSI). An investigation was initiated into participation in a terrorist group aimed at preparing at least one attack.
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According to the daily “Le Parisien” and the BFMTV website, the oppositionist whose assassination attempt was being planned was Vladimir Osiechkin. The prosecutor's office did not confirm the name of the person in question.
Recordings on the phones of the detained
BFMTV reports that at least three of the four detainees come from Dagestan in Russia's North Caucasus. They were detained in various places in France. According to BFMTV, investigators determined that the men were collecting information in the vicinity of Osiechkin's residence in Biarritz. Video recordings of the scene were found on their mobile phones.
Osiechkin is the founder of the Gulagu.net project, which publicized repression in prisons and Russian law enforcement structures. He left Russia in 2015. A court in the country convicted him in absentia in a criminal case involving embezzlement.
In the fall of 2022, Osiechkin informed the media about a failed attempt to shoot him near his home in Biarritz. At that time, the prosecutor's office in France found no evidence of an attempted assassination.
