Nice truck attacker Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel received logistical support for his Bastille Day attack from five suspects who are now in custody, French prosecutor Francois Molins has said.
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Police officers seal off the area of an attack after a truck drove on to the sidewalk and plowed through a crowd of revelers who’d gathered to watch the fireworks in the French resort city of Nice, southern France, Friday, July 15, 2016.
Investigators have said they have no proof yet that the driver, who was shot dead by police, had pledged allegiance to the group.
One of the suspects, a Tunisian identified as Mohamed Oualid G, filmed the scene of the crime the day after the carnage, as it crawled with paramedics and journalists, he said.
The Albanian couple allegedly helped 31-year-old Lahouaiej Bouhlel acquire the gun he used to shoot at policemen during his fatal drive. Evidence from mobile phones and computer records suggested that Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was not a recently radicalised “lone wolf”, as previously thought, but had several accomplices and had planned his attack for up to a year.
Police shot Bouhlel to death after he barreled down the crowded Promenade des Anglais for nearly a mile, crushing and hitting people who had gathered to watch fireworks. Only one of them, a 22-year-old Franco-Tunisian, Ramzi A, who was born in Nice, had a criminal record for robbery and drug offences.
Molins said he was seeking charges against four men and one woman, three of whom were of Tunisian or joint French-Tunisian nationality and two holding Albanian nationality.
Lahouaiej Bouhlel’s laptop contained detailed photos of last year’s Bastille Day fireworks, saved articles about other terrorist attacks, and mentions of the “magical” drug Captagon, a stimulant popular with militants fighting for Islamic State.
“This was a premeditated act by Mr. Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel”.
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, the Associated Press reported.
The prosecutor also said that Bouhlel’s interest in IS and other radical Islamist groups was rather recent.
President Hollande speaks to Prime Minister Manuel Valls about the events in Nice.
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About 36 hours after the attack, A’ Maq, the press agency supporting ISIS, claimed Bouhlel was a “soldier of the Islamic State, who (had) carried out the operation in response to calls to target states that are part of the coalition fighting Islamic State”.
