Bouhlel’s phone also contained a photograph of Bastille Day fireworks from past year and another zooming in on crowds at a concert three days later.
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Prosecutor Francois Molins said his office, which oversees terrorism investigations, said five suspects now in custody are facing preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping driver Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, in a judicial inquiry opened Thursday.
Authorities initially said Bouhlel had radicalized very quickly.
Instead, Molins suggested Lahouaiej Bouhlel conducted surveillance on the Nice promenade a year before he acted and communicated more than a thousand times with suspected accomplices.
Bouhlel had exchanged thousands of calls and text messages a year ago with the accomplices – a Tunisian resident, two Franco-Tunisian men and an Albanian couple.
French officials investigating the terrorist attack in Nice, France, announced it was premeditated and the attacker had help from accomplices.
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.
He was shot and killed by police on the scene.
Meanwhile, France’s interior minister said there were no national police stationed at the entrance to the walkway in Nice when the Bastille Day truck attack took place.
Before the attack, one of the suspects cheered the January 2015 terrorist attack at the offices of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris, saying, “I’m happy!”
The Nice attack was the third major terror attack in France 18 months and has led to widespread criticism of the government’s failure to tighten security. He said any police “shortcomings” will be carefully addressed but defended French authorities’ actions.
The letter did not provide a reason for the request, the city official said, but France’s Le Figaro newspaper said national police are concerned that the images would leak out and be used for jihadi propaganda.
Molins also confirmed that five suspects have been taken into custody and will face preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in the July 14 attack.
Mr Molins said photos on his phone showed he had likely staked out the event in 2015, and initial details of the investigation reveal he had been fascinated with jihad for some time.
Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who mowed down crowds of people enjoying a Bastille Day fireworks display, had long plotted the carnage, prosecutor Francois Molins said. A married couple from Albania, who allegedly gave Bouhlel the pistol he used in the police shootout, were also arrested.
Hollande said that “there’s no room for polemics”.
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Earlier, the French newspaper Liberation said Cazeneuve lied about the whereabouts of the national police officers and cars in Nice that day and accused authorities of lacking transparency. Using witness statements and photos, “Liberation” showed that only one local police auto was stationed at the entrance to the Nice boulevard on July 14.
