French Woman Charged with Smuggling Propaganda to Abdeslam

French authorities have charged a 27-year-old woman, identified as Maeva B., with criminal conspiracy for terrorist purposes after she admitted to smuggling a USB drive containing jihadist propaganda to Salah Abdeslam, the imprisoned survivor of the 2015 Paris attacks. The investigation, which expanded this week to include suspicions of planning violent acts against the public, comes days before France marks the 10th anniversary of the attacks that killed 130 people and wounded hundreds more.

Maeva B., a French national from Montauban in southern France, was taken into custody on Tuesday and appeared before a judge on Monday following six days of questioning. Prosecutors from the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutors Office, known as PNAT, stated that she exhibited clear signs of radicalization and a fascination with jihad. During interrogation, she confessed to purchasing the USB drive, loading it with audio files, images, and videos related to propaganda from terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda, and delivering it to Abdeslam during prison visits in December 2024 and January 2025. The device was intended for use on Abdeslam's limited-access...