Norwegian neo-Nazi arrested in France on suspicion of preparing terrorist attack

The French Interior Ministry has announced that French Police have arrested Norwegian neo-Nazi Kristian Vikernes and his French wife, Marie Cachet, on suspicion of preparing "a large-scale act of terrorism". Vikernes made no secret of his sympathies for right-wing extremist Anders Behring Breivik, who in July 2011 committed a terrorist attack in Oslo and then shot dead dozens of participants in a summer camp for Social Democratic youth.

Vikernes, who is now 40, was sentenced to 21 years in prison in his youth for murdering a friend by stabbing him 20 times with a knife. He was released after 16 years in prison and began living in France in 2010.

Cachet, who is 25, has already had three children with Vikernes and is now expecting a fourth. She has applied for a gun permit and has recently purchased several firearms. 

Police have long been disturbed by the anti-Jewish, seditious, xenophobic texts that Vikernes has published online. During a recent search of his home in the village of Salon-La-Tour they found five rifles.

"Vikernes represents a potential threat to society. He had the ability to prepare a large-scale act of terrorism," the French Interior Ministry's statement said.