The car that was meant to be detonated was a grey Peugeot 607 with its license plates removed. It was packed with several gas canisters full of diesel fuel, some of which was used to douse the inside of the car. A lit cigarette was used in an attempt to initiate the explosion, however the fuel did not ignite and the perpetrators left the scene.[5]
Arrests
"Information we were able to get from our intelligence services allowed us to act before it was too late," said PresidentFrançois Hollande.[6] Inès Madani, accused of leading the bomb attempt, posed as a man under the name "Abu Souleyman" on social media to recruit jihadis to join her in attacking Notre Dame, and successfully recruited Ornella Gilligmann, a mother of three. According to Gilligmann, she then stopped hearing from "Abu Omar", but was contacted by Madani.[7]
Police also arrested Amel Sakaou, 39, and Sarah Hervouët, 23.[8] All three women were armed with knives.[9] During the arrest, Hervouët, who was "completely veiled",[10] stabbed a policeman.[11] Hervouët converted to Islam a few months before traveling towards Syria in 2015,[12] and was betrothed to Adel Kermiche,[13] one of the terrorists of the Normandy church attack. One of the arrested women was alleged to have had a letter professing allegiance to the Islamic State.[14] Two men said to be connected with ISIL propagandist Rachid Kassim were also arrested in connection with the plot.[7][needs update]
Trial
The trial of five accused women commenced in Paris, in September 2019.[15] The accused women were Inès Madani, Ornella Gilligmann, Sarah Hervouët, Amel Sakaou and Samia Chalel, between the ages 22 and 42 all converts to Islam. On 15 October 2019, Madani was given a 30-year prison sentence, Gilligmann a 25-year prison sentence, Hervouët and Sakaou were given 20 years each, while Chalel received five years for helping Madani hide after the failed attack. The Frenchman Rachid Kassim, thought to have been killed in Iraq in 2017, was sentenced to lifein absentia.[16]
^ALISSA J. RUBIN; AURELIEN BREEDEN (October 2016). "Women's Emergence as Terrorists in France Points to Shift in ISIS Gender Roles". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 October 2016. Ms. Hervouët is a convert to Islam, and she, too, wanted to go to Syria, Mr. Molins said. She left for Syria in March last year, but never got there because the Turkish authorities turned her back. Mr. Molins said that she had been betrothed first to the man who killed a police captain and his companion in June in Magnanville near Paris and then to Adel Kermiche
