Prosecutor Francois Molins, in charge of terrorism investigations in France, said Thursday five suspected accomplices were arrested, adding charges would include murder, attempted murder, terrorist conspiracy, and the possession and transportation of weapons.
Advertisement
The so-called “Islamic State” (IS) terrorist organization later claimed responsibility for the attack, though authorities have yet to uncover evidence suggesting Bouhlel – who was shot dead at the scene of the attack – was ever in direct contact with the group.
French officials defended the government’s security measures in Nice on the night of the attack, even as the interior minister acknowledged that national police were not, as he had claimed before, stationed at the entrance to the closed-off boulevard.
His parallel worlds are complicating investigators’ efforts to figure out who he was, who might have helped with the attack, whether other violence was planned.
Police officers and rescued workers stand near a truck that plowed into a crowd leaving a fireworks display in the French Riviera town of Nice on July 14, 2016.
According Molins, Bouhlel could have been preparing for this as early as May 2015, as a photo on his phone taken on May 25, 2015 was a snap of an article on Captagon, a drug used by jihadis prior to executing their attacks.
None of the suspects had known terrorist ties, though at least one – a 21-year-old French-Tunisian man from Nice identified as Ramzi A., had a criminal record.
“The investigation under way since the night of July 14 has 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”, Mr Molins said.
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.
As reporter Jake Cigainero told our Newscast unit, “phone records led police to four men and one woman who have been arrested and sent to an anti-terror judge today in connection with the attack”.
Pictures of Oualid apparently taken in the truck used in the attack were also found on Bouhlel’s phone. “They have brought in the soldiers of Allah”.
A French security official said this may have been intentional, in response to ISIS suggestions to some followers in the West that they hide their radical faith to stay off police radar.
The mayor of Nice, France, tweeted that a truck ran into a crowd on Bastille Day, killing multiple people.
The local authorities in Nice have refused a request by French anti-terror police to destroy CCTV images of last week’s lorry attack.
The news comes as local and national authorities have been fighting over the scale of police in wake of the attack, according to BBC.
Advertisement
France’s parliament extended the country’s state of emergency for the fourth time on Thursday, expanding police powers to conduct searches and detain suspects for another six months.
