People stand in front of flowers, candles and messages laid at a makeshift memorial in Nice on July 18, 2016, in tribute to the victims of the deadly attack on the Promenade des Anglais seafront which killed 84 people.
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None of the five had been known to intelligence services.
Much of the new evidence comes from Bouhlel’s electronic communication – particularly text and social-media messages to and from the arrested suspects – that reveal the Nice rampage was clearly “premeditated”, said French prosecutor François Molins.
No other details were immediately available.
Ramzi and the Albanian couple were also charged with providing Bouhlel with the gun he fired at the police officers who raked his truck with bullets, ending the massacre.
Ramzi A.is another one of the five who have been placed in custody; he has been indicted for arms offenses in association with terrorism.
An Albanian man named Artan and a French-Albanian woman identified as Enkeldja are suspected of providing Bouhlel with a pistol and were charged with “breaking the law on weapons in relation to a terrorist group”.
A truck with its windscreen riddled with bullets is seen on a street on July 15, 2016, after it ploughed into a crowd leaving a fireworks display in the French Riviera town of Nice.
The attack in Nice – the third major militant act on French soil in less than two years – has created schisms in the country’s political class, with conservative and far-right politicians accusing the Socialist government of not having done enough to secure the nation against the “threat posed by terrorism”. Pictures of Oualid apparently taken in the truck used in the attack were also found on Bouhlel’s phone.
On April 4, Tunisian Chokri C., sent Bouhlel a Facebook message reading: “Load the truck with 2,000 tons of iron… release the brakes my friend and I will watch”. “I am happy they have brought soldiers of Allah to finish the job”.
One photo in his phone, taken May 25, 2015, was an article on Captagon, a drug said to be used by some jihadis before attacks.
A French official said Thursday he may have plotted the attack for at least a year and is believed to have had help from at least five others.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve yesterday faced calls from the right-wing opposition to resign after a report in “Liberation” newspaper claimed that only one municipal police auto was guarding the spot where Bouhlel began his run into the crowd.
An internal police investigation into the security measures has been launched.
French President Francois Hollande on Thursday promised “truth and transparency” from an inquiry into allegations of lax security.
It is the latest evidence of a growing dispute between the local and national authorities in the wake of the attack.
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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.
