Four Bulgarians were to go on trial in France Wednesday accused of desecrating a Jewish memorial with red handprints last year, which prosecutors think may have been foreign interference linked to Russia.

The vandalism was staged during heightened tensions in France over the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas that broke out in October 2023.

The trial is the first of its kind in France, one of a series of similar such cases suspected of having been orchestrated by a foreign power with the aim to destabilise.

The Paris prosecutor’s office says the red handprint incident, possibly “orchestrated by Russian intelligence services”, is one of nine such suspected acts of foreign meddling.

Other suspicious incidents include stars of David stencilled in the Paris region in O

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