Rémy Daillet: conspiracy theorist accused of alleged French coup plot

A far-right conspiracy theorist has been charged with terrorism for an alleged plot to overthrow the French government, among other violent acts.

Rémy Daillet is accused of forming an extremist group to plan a series of attacks against the French state.

French reports claim that he allegedly recruited soldiers for an attempt to seize the presidential palace in Paris.

Daillet’s lawyer denied the allegations and called him a “political prisoner”.

Once a regional leader of a centrist political party, 54-year-old Daillet has become an influential figure in French conspiracy circles.

The Frenchman had already been prosecuted on charges of organizing the kidnapping of an eight-year-old girl at her mother’s request in eastern France in April.

The girl was found safe with her mother in Switzerland five days after she was taken away from her grandmother’s house.

French prosecutors then issued an international warrant for Daillet, who lived with her family in Malaysia. He was deported for overcoming his visa and arrested in June on his way back to France.

Daillet told French TV at the time that it was not “a kidnapping, but rather the return of a child to his mother at her request”.

Since then, Mr. Daillet has faced new crime charges. An anti-terrorism judge had ordered the arrest of Daillet and others as part of an investigation into an obscure group known as Honor and Nation.

On Friday, a judge accused Daillet of a terrorist conspiracy. Now, the French media have reported more details on the allegations against him.

Sources close to the investigation told broadcaster France Info that Mr. Daillet would use encrypted messages to build a vast network of conspiracy theorists.

According to reports from France Info, it is suspected that Daillet created a clandestine organization with several dozen members for several months.

The broadcaster said the organization appealed to anti-vaccine circles and neo-Nazi activists in eastern France.

For a project known as Operation Azul, 12 suspects are accused of planning a series of attacks on Covid-19 vaccination centers, a Masonic lodge, journalists and leading figures, sources told AFP news agency.

A source told AFP that the suspects had “the idea of ​​a coup d’état, of an overthrow of the French government.”

BFM TV said had confirmed this report. Citing its sources, BFM TV said former soldiers had been ordered to train recruits for a plot to storm the Elysée Palace, the official residence of French President Emmanuel Macron.

The attackers then planned to capture the French parliament, before taking over a radio or television channel to spread propaganda, according to BFM TV.

Last week, Daillet’s attorney Jean-Christophe Basson-Larbi said his client had no ties to the Honor and Nation group or the planned attacks.

“No objective elements indicate his involvement,” the lawyer said.

In the 2000s Daillet was a local politician in southwestern France and sided with the Center Democratic Movement.

Eventually he was expelled from the party, before moving to the far right and gaining prominence within the conspiracy movement for video calling for a “popular coup.”

“I have decided to take power in France, to restore this country, to give you your freedom,” he said in a YouTube video released last year.

A poster linked to one of his videos repeated unsubstantiated conspiracy theories that 5G and face masks are harmful.