BURZUM mastermind Varg Vikernes (a.k.a. Count Grishnackh) and his 25-year-old French wife, Marie Cachet, have been released from custody — just two days after they were arrested on suspicion of planning a “massacre,” reports Blabbermouth. French prosecutors confirmed to NRK (Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation) that Vikernes was freed at 7:00 p.m. Thursday night. The couple were picked up Tuesday morning on their farm near the town of Salon-la-Tour, a commune in the Corrèze department in central France.
French police can hold suspects in terrorism cases for up to 96 hours before bringing preliminary charges.
Vikerenes, 40, who has been living in France for the past three years, and his wife were arrested as a preventive measure after Vikernes posted aggressive racist, xenophobic and anti-Semitic comments on Internet forums. The couple’s home was searched and five guns were found, including four rifles legally purchased by Varg’s wife as a member of a rifle club.
“Vikernes did not plan terror attacks,” his French lawyer, Julien Freyssinet, told Aftenposten, according to the French news bureau AFP. “The weapons are purchased for the couple’s leisure activities and life philosophy. Vikernes only wants to live peacefully with his family.”
He added that weapons seized by officers at the couple’s home had been acquired “completely legally and without hiding a thing, as part of a philosophy followed by the couple — that of survivalism.”
According to the AFP, Vikernes had been under police surveillance for many years, but it was only when his wife acquired weapons that police started a formal investigation.