Three Islamist women charged with planning Paris terror attack: 'I want to pay tribute to Bin Laden!'

The three women, identified only by their initials B, 19, K, 21, and A, 18, were placed under formal investigation on October 10 for “criminal terrorist conspiracy” by France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office.

They were arrested three days earlier by officers from the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI) after several months of discreet surveillance, telephone interceptions, and tailing.

According to DGSI reports, the women all professed adherence to an ultra-orthodox Islamist doctrine and were rarely seen outside without full face veils.

Investigators say they spent most of their time confined to their homes watching and sharing jihadist propaganda via Snapchat, TikTok, and Telegram.

The DGSI said that a tapped telephone conversation between A and B was among the material that raised an alarm.

While discussing their attendance at the French military celebration, B allegedly said: “I want to blow everything up there… I want to pay tribute to Bin Laden!”

A replied: “If only they (the servicemen at the event) knew there was a terrorist among them,” the transcript reportedly shows.

DGSI officers warned that, although the exchange may have been made in jest, it demonstrated “a certain degree of radicalisation.”

B, the suspected ringleader and the first to appear on counter-terrorism radar, ran a TikTok account with about 20,000 followers on which she posted pro-jihad content and interacted in Telegram groups monitored by intelligence services.

Under the online name “YCC” she allegedly discussed her intention to carry out “an operation with another sister,” sought “equipment for two” and asked for “someone to teach (her) how to use it.”

Prosecutors say she owned a notebook listing steps to fabricate an explosive suicide belt, the price of a Kalashnikov rifle, and possible targets such as concert venues and night-time leisure venues in Paris.

She is reported to have proposed obtaining false identity documents to travel anonymously to the capital and told investigators she was “ready to act” once an explosive belt had been assembled.

In interviews with police, B denied that the scheme was “organised” or “well thought through,” describing herself as “impulsive” and “incapable of seeing things through.”

She also told officers that her ultimate hope had been to be killed by security services and attain “martyrdom.”

One of the three women, K, is paraplegic and uses a wheelchair, according to the French newspaper, Le Parisien.

She has a history of psychiatric treatment and was the subject of an earlier investigation in February 2025 for praise of terrorism, which led to a police search and an interview on June 11.

Her lawyer, Thibault Bailly, told investigators that his client “firmly denies any participation” in the alleged plot and that he is “particularly worried for her physical health; prisons severely lack the means to care for people with major disabilities.”

She converted to Islam in 2023 after reading the Qur’an, a religious experience that her family later also embraced.

A, the third accused, is 18 years old and has been described by defence lawyers as isolated, having left school and withdrawn to her parents’ home on the outskirts of Lyon.

Her counsel, Jean-Baptiste Riolacci, said there was still “little concrete” to suggest the project had been carried through and that the court would quickly establish whether remarks attributed to her amounted to a genuine threat or “the vain and unhappy attempts of a very young woman to escape loneliness.”

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