French judges have charged five suspects who were in contact with truck attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in the lead-up to the Nice attack that left 84 people dead, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.
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Thursday night [July 21, 2016], five people were given preliminary terrorism charges for their suspected parts in aiding Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in France’s third mass-casualty attack in just over 18 months.
Paris prosecutor François Molins said authorities found “revealing” online searches and photos on the cellphone and laptop belonging to Nice killer Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel dating back to past year, including photos of the 2015 fireworks display.
Police have uncovered thousands of calls and messages between Lahouaiej Bouhlel, and five accomplices, after going through his social media accounts, laptop and phone records.
In April this year, Chokri C sent Bouhlel a Facebook message reading: “Load the truck with 2,000 tonnes of iron. release the brakes my friend and I will watch”.
Like Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, none of those detained were known to French intelligence prior to the attack, although Ramzi A had previous convictions for drugs and petty crime, Mr Molins said. Investigators are now examining whether the men had connections to Islamic State or other extremist groups, Molins said.
One of the men is Tunisian, two men are French-Tunisian, one man is Albanian, and the woman is French-Albanian, Molins said.
French officials rushed to defend the government’s security measures Thursday even as the country’s interior minister acknowledged that national police were not, as he had claimed before, stationed at the entrance to closed-off Nice boulevard during the Bastille Day truck attack that killed 84 people.
Two Albanians – Artan H, 38, and a woman referred to as asEnkeledgia Z, 42 – are accused of supplying the gun which the killer used to shoot at police officers on July 14.
Mr Molins said that the inquiry had “progressed and not only confirmed the murderous premeditated nature of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s act but also established that he benefited from support and complicity”. “I am happy they have brought soldiers of Allah to finish the job”.
The same man filmed the bloody scene on the promenade hours after the attack.
The city received a letter this week from the SDAT anti-terrorism agency saying images of the July 14 attack should be destroyed, an official at Nice City Hall said.
An internal police investigation into the security measures has been launched, and President Francois Hollande held a special security meeting yesterday.
Flowers commemorating the spot where someone was killed in the the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.
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On Thursday, Parliament also passed a bill extending for another six months the state of emergency that was declared after the November attacks that killed 130 people in and around Paris.
