The men who installed fake “coffins” near the Eiffel Tower in Paris the day before were linked to a man suspected of being part of a group that previously vandalized the Righteous Among the Nations memorial in Paris.
This is stated in a memorandum by the Paris Region Security Directorate, which was reviewed by Le Monde.
The contents of the phone of one of the suspects and statements made by three of the detainees revealed that they were in contact with a person suspected of participating in another possible intervention operation: the damage to the Wall of the Righteous at the Shoah Memorial in Paris, the publication said.
It is noted that this 34-year-old Bulgarian citizen, suspected of vandalism at the Memorial, has not yet been arrested.
The driver of the van, who was arrested near the Eiffel Tower, and two men who were subsequently detained at the bus station are under investigation in the “coffins” case. One of them is 16 years old, he has Ukrainian citizenship, the second is German – he is 25 years old. They admitted that they were paid 400 euros.
The investigation is focusing on a version of the destabilization operation that was coordinated from abroad, and there is evidence pointing to Russia. In particular, a few days after the discovery of red handprints on the memorial, corresponding photographs were published on the social network X in accounts belonging to the Russian disinformation “Dvoinik”. Photos of the damage were also circulated by the Doppelganger network of fake accounts.
The article notes that the main version of the investigation in this case points to an operation led by the Russian intelligence services FSB.