PARIS: A 23-year-old Belgian woman was charged in France Friday for allegedly being part of an attempted March 28 bomb attack on a Bank of America branch in Paris that officials said might be tied to a pro-Iran group.<\/p>\n
That attack \u2014 thwarted when police stopped and arrested four people about to set off an explosive device outside the US bank building \u2014 occurred a month after the US-Israeli strikes on Iran sparked the ongoing war in the Middle East.<\/p>\n
France\u2019s anti-terrorist prosecution office (PNAT) said at the time the incident could be linked to a little-known Islamist group with possible links to Iran, Harakat Ashab Al-Yamin Al-Islamiya (HAYI), though no firm link had been established.<\/p>\n
The woman, handed over by Belgian authorities responding to a European arrest warrant, is one of six people charged over the foiled attack, with five of them being held in detention pending further legal proceedings, PNAT told AFP on Friday.<\/p>\n
She was charged with associating with \u201cterrorist criminals\u201d aiming to set off explosives or incendiary devices likely to cause deaths, as well as possessing and transporting explosive substances \u201cin relation with a terrorist operation,\u201d PNAT said.<\/p>\n
The office added that, on July 31, another Belgian woman was also charged and placed in pre-trial detention in the same case.<\/p>\n
The attempted attack triggered alarm among other US banks with offices in Paris. Citigroup and Goldman Sachs told staff they could work from home, while French police stepped up security around their buildings.<\/p>\n
The lawyer for the Belgian woman jailed on Friday told AFP his client was innocent.<\/p>\n
She was \u201ccaught up in an activity in which she had no responsibility and now she finds herself in an overcrowded jail,\u201d the lawyer, Werner-Edouard de Saeger van Nattenhaesdonck, said. He added that she would appeal.<\/p>\n
The PNAT said at the time of the foiled attack that it appeared that teenagers might have been recruited to plant the explosive device outside the Bank of America branch, against payment of 500 to 1,000 euros ($580 to $1,160).<\/p>\n
Police a week earlier had said they had been informed of a HAYI propaganda video on social media targeting the Bank of America building.<\/p>\n
The HAYI group has claimed responsibility for attacks targeting Jewish communities in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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