France’s anti-terror prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into a suspected terrorist plot connected to Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving member of the jihadist terror cell responsible for the November 2015 attacks in Paris and Saint-Denis.
The probe comes less than a week before France marks the tenth anniversary of the attacks, in which 130 people were murdered at the Bataclan concert hall, cafés, and the Stade de France.
According to the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), cited by France24, three people are now in custody, including Abdeslam’s partner.
Abdeslam, who is serving a life sentence without parole at Vendin-le-Vieil prison in Pas-de-Calais, had been briefly taken into custody earlier this week in an investigation that began in January 2025 over the illegal possession of a USB key in prison. That case has since been expanded to include suspicions of “terrorist conspiracy with a view to preparing a crime against persons,” the PNAT announced on Saturday.
After being detained on Tuesday, Abdeslam was released on Friday, though the investigation continues. The prosecutor’s office confirmed that a second person — identified by Le Parisien as Maëva B., a 27-year-old woman who maintained a long correspondence with Abdeslam before being allowed to visit him — was also detained on Tuesday. Her custody has been extended beyond the initial 96 hours under exceptional measures invoked only when there is “a serious risk of an imminent terrorist attack.”
The PNAT said Maëva B. is being held on suspicion of receiving stolen goods and criminal terrorist conspiracy. Two other individuals were arrested on Friday as part of the same investigation, also on suspicion of terrorist conspiracy. Their custody is ongoing.
Le Parisien reported on Monday that the two other suspects are Maëva B.’s new 20-year-old male partner and a teenage girl.
“These two individuals are described as particularly radicalized. One reportedly wishes to join a jihadist organization, while the other is allegedly trying to incite Maëva B. to commit an attack on French soil, a plan whose precise details were still being determined by the investigation,” it wrote.
According to a prison union source cited by AFP, “USB key connections were found” on Abdeslam’s prison computer, which he was authorized to use for coursework but under “very limited conditions.” The USB key itself, reportedly used to transfer jihadist propaganda, has not been recovered.
Abdeslam’s detention status as a “particularly dangerous prisoner” means he is subject to regular cell transfers and systematic searches of his belongings. Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin said on Thursday that he had ordered “systematic searches for the most dangerous prisoners” shortly after taking office at the Ministry of Justice in December 2024. “That means there have been undeniable malfunctions,” Darmanin said.
The investigation is ongoing.
