Paris 2024 Olympic Games: who is Rokhman B., 18 years old, suspected of a planned attack at the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium in Saint-Étienne ?

Le stade Geoffroy-Guichard de Saint-Etienne. AFP – THIERRY ZOCCOLAN

In liaison with jihadists from the Islamic State group in Khorasan (EI-K), Rokhman B., 18, is suspected of having planned a violent action targeting the football events planned in Saint-Étienne, at ;occasion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

An 18-year-old Chechen national was arrested on May 22, 2024 by the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), we learned BFMTV from a police source. The suspect is suspected of wanting to commit an Islamist-inspired attack on national soil targeting the football events planned in Saint-Étienne, on occasion of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Unknown to the police and justice services

According to information from Parisien, the suspect Rokhman B., was in contact with jihadist members of the Islamic State group in Khorassan (EI-K), a particularly violent Afghan branch of the terrorist organization.

Unknown to the police and justice services and not on file, the young man arrived in France in 2023 with his parents and brothers from Russia.  Based in Saint-Étienne, the family had submitted an asylum application to Ofpra. Not in school, but wanting to return to university, Rokhman B. mainly maintained conspiratorial conversations on Telegram messaging.

According to investigations carried out by police officers from the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), the Chechen spoke of his intention to commit an attack during the Olympic Games this summer, targeting in particular the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium, a photo of which he posted in his conversations with jihadists located abroad.

Exchanges with radicalized people

"If I carried out an attack there, it would cause a lot of victims", he wrote during ;rsquo;an exchange with his interlocutors. The young man spoke of his wish to kill "kouffars" whether spectators or police officers, before dying as a martyr. In his discussions, Rokhman B. did not specify which operating mode he planned to use, indicates our colleagues.

In his phone, photos and videos around the Geoffroy-Guichard stadium were found. However, no weapons or explosives in preparation were discovered during the search of his home.

During his police custody, he admitted to having had exchanges with radicalized individuals but contests any plans for violent action, assuring that he would never have committed it implemented.

On May 26, Rokhman B. was presented to an anti-terrorism judge before being indicted for "criminal terrorist association" and placed in pre-trial detention.