On the morning of Nov. 11, some 150 French police—including elite anti-terrorist forces—raided a farm at Tarnac in the Millevaches plateau and arrested nine young people, who ran the local grocery store. Four days later, the nine were sent before an anti-terrorist judge and accused of "criminal conspiracy with terrorist intentions." The newspapers reported that the nine "were tracked by the police because they belonged to the ultra-left and the anarcho-autonomous milieu."

The suspects are supposedly connected with sabotage acts against the French National Railway Company (SNCF) that on Nov. 8 caused delays of certain trains on the Paris-Lille line. But the evidence against them seems specious. Media accounts mentioned government claims that the younths had participated in numerous political demonstrations, including recent protests against the current French immigration crackdown. The Anti-terrorist Directorate (SDAT) claimed to have discovered "documents containing detailed information on railway transportation, including exact arrival and departure times of trains." This apparently referred to a train schedule. They also confiscated "climbing gear"—an apparent reference to a ladder. (Libération, Nov. 19, translated by Fark Yaralari blog)

See our last post on France.