Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel killed 84 people when he drove a truck through a packed crowd on July 14 for a Bastille Day fireworks display.
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Investigators also found a text message in Bouhlel’s phone from Mohamed Oualid on January 10 2015 – roughly a year after attacks on the Charlie Hebdo weekly which spawned the hashtag “I am Charlie” in support of those killed. More than 400 investigators have been poring over evidence since the grisly attack, the third in France in 18 months, and it was analyses of Bouhlel’s telephone records that led them to the five suspects.
Hollande said Friday the equipment will be in place next month, as part of French efforts to boost its participation in the USA -led fight against IS.
Authorities had initially pointed to a rapid radicalization by Bouhlel, after several members of his family and friends said he showed no sign of being religious. 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.
Molins said Bouhlel and Mohamed Oualid G., a 40-year-old French-Tunisian, called each other 1 278 times between July 2015 and July 2016. But Molins said that information from Bouhlel’s phone showed searches and photos that suggested he could have been preparing an attack as far back as 2015.
The so-called Islamic State group said Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was one of its “soldiers” but the driver had not been known to intelligence forces.
Paris: A new crisis hit France’s government Sunday when a senior policewoman claimed the interior minister pressured her to alter a report into security at the Nice fireworks display where 84 were killed when a man rammed a lorry into the crowd.
The message read: “I am not Charlie”.
Vladis Selevanov, who works as a cook in Nice, said he had gone to different gyms with Bouhlel for the past four years, yet didn’t know he was married and a father.
President Francois Hollande was forced on Friday to say that he still had “full confidence” in Mr Cazeneuve, a key member of his Government, promising “truth and transparency” on the security measures that were in place.
It comes after Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that French national police were guarding the pedestrianized boulevard but later conceded that only local police, carrying light arms, were at the entrance of the promenade. Using witness statements and photos, Liberation showed Thursday only one local police auto was stationed at the entrance to the Nice boulevard on July 14.
However, he said, “It is clear that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had been premeditating for several months”.
In a related development, France’s lawmakers voted Wednesday to extend the state of emergency for another six months, continuing greater police search-and-arrest powers without advance clearance from judges.
At the same time, national police chief Jean-Marc Falcone backed Cazeneuve saying “the manipulations attacking the national police, its leaders and its minister must stop”.
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The measures, enacted after Daesh-claimed attacks around Paris last November that targeted in part a national stadium and concert hall and left 130 people dead, have been criticized by human rights groups.
