Last week, a gunman smashed a truck into a crowd of revellers celebrating Bastille Day in the French Riviera city of Nice in what President Francois Hollande on Friday called a “terrorist” attack.
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The latest terrorist attack to strike France occurred earlier this month when Bouhlel plowed his 19-ton truck through a crowd of Bastille Day revelers, killing 84 people and injuring over 300.
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead by police and all of the names mentioned in phone messages recovered by investigators are covered by the four men – including Tunisian Chokri C – and one women who have been charged.
On May 26 past year, he took a photo of an article about the drug Captagon, which Molins said was “used by some jihadists responsible for attacks”.
The others are 22-year-old Franco-Tunisian Ramzi A., 38-year-old Albanian Artan H, and his wife Enkeledja Z. who holds both French and Albanian nationality.
Correction: This story has been amended to adjust the Nice attack death toll.
Still taken from video made available Wednesday July 20, 2016, showing Nice, France, attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, right, while competing in a martial arts competition in 2010.
The Islamic State militant group claimed responsibility for the attack and five suspects with links to Lahouaiej-Bouhlel have appeared in court.
Cazeneuve accused the paper of conspiracy theories and said several “heroic” national police officers – who killed the attacker after an exchange of fire – were stationed further down the promenade. Bouhlel also allegedly took a selfie in his truck on the eve of his attack. A large, global crowd had gathered at the waterfront in Nice for the fireworks display in honor of Bastille Day, one of France’s largest national holidays.
The five suspects, who were arrested in the days after the attack, were to be charged Thursday.
Lawyer Jean-Pascal Padovani said his client, Ramzi A.and Bouhlel were from the world of ‘small-scale delinquence….
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”.
His fingerprints have been found on one of the truck doors.
Phone records showed a large number of exchanges between the suspects and Bouhlel over the previous year. “I am happy they have brought soldiers of Allah to finish the job”.
LOCAL authorities in the French city of Nice protested yesterday against an attempted cover-up of government incompetence over last week’s lorry attack.
“There’s no room for polemics, there’s only room for transparency”, he said. Investigators are now examining whether the men had connections to Islamic State or other extremist groups, Molins said.
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On Thursday, the senate was set to pass a bill extending the state of emergency, which gives police extra powers to carry out searches and place people under house arrest, for six months.
