French police detain woman with fake pregnant belly ‘intended to hide bomb’
Prosthetic stomach – which have been used by female suicide bombers in Middle East – found at home of couple arrested on suspicion of condoning terrorism
A reconstruction of the prosthetic belly that was found. Photo: Photoshot/Le Midi Libre
By Rory Mulholland, Paris
5:31PM GMT 23 Dec 2015
French anti-terror police have detained a woman found with a fake pregnant belly which they suspect she may have been planning to use to conceal explosives for a suicide attack.
The arrest of the 25-year-old Muslim convert and her 34-year-old partner came as France remains on high terror alert during the Christmas holiday season, a month and a half after attacks by Islamic extremists killed 130 in Paris.
The couple were arrested late last week in Montpellier for condoning terrorism. Investigators later found the fake belly when they searched their home in the southern town.
The fake belly had been covered in aluminium foil in a possible attempt to make its potential contents undetectable at security gates, a source close to the investigation said.
Female suicide bombers have hidden explosives in fake pregnancy bellies for attacks in the Middle East on many occasions, and the prosthetic stomachs have also been used to conceal drugs.
Police also found extremist Islamist propaganda on the couple’s computer in their home in Montpellier, and the woman had searched online for information on how to make bombs, a police source said.
No explosives were found. Anti-terrorist police did not say what they think she may have been planning.
The 25-year-old Muslim convert and her 34-year-old partner lived on the first floor of this modern apartment building.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said on Tuesday that 10 terror attacks had been prevented this year in France, which suffered its worst atrocity for decades on November 13 when gunmen and suicide bombers carried out a series of coordinated assaults across Paris.
The latest was foiled just week when a pair of French citizens were arrested before they could carry out their plan to attack “soldiers, police and representatives of the state” in the region of Orleans, south-west of Paris, he said.
On Wednesday, the French cabinet backed reform proposals that could see the state of emergency called after last month’s Paris attacks enshrined in the constitution.
Special policing powers used under the state of emergency – such as house arrests and the right to raid houses without clearance by a judge – are currently based on an ordinary law which can be challenged at the constitutional court.
There has been criticism from civil rights groups over the violence of police raids, cases of mistaken identity and people losing their jobs because they were placed under house arrest.
Amnesty International said the constitutional reforms were “deeply worrying” and added to an “already extensive and sometimes disproportionate arsenal” of measures.
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