The 31-year-old man who drove a delivery truck down 2 kilometres of Nice’s seaside promenade, killing 84 people celebrating Bastille Day, had envisaged such a terrorist attack for months before getting behind the wheel, a French prosecutor said Thursday.
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Thursday night [July 21, 2016], five people were given preliminary terrorism charges for their suspected parts in aiding Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel in France’s third mass-casualty attack in just over 18 months.
The Albanian and his wife – Enkeledja Z., who holds French and Albanian nationality – were taken into custody on Sunday. None of the individuals were previously known to intelligence services.
Ramzi A. has claimed that an Albanian aged 38, named Artan H., gave him the pistol Bouhlel mentioned in his message.
Ramzi, Chokri and Oualid were charged with being accomplices to murder by a terror group.
Cazeneuve then launched an internal police investigation into the handling of the Nice attack.
The five suspects will be presented to anti-terrorism judges later Thursday and Molins said prosecutors had requested they be charged with conspiracy to commit terrorism, among other crimes.
Vladis Selevanov, who works as a cook in Nice, said he had gone to different gyms with Bouhlel for about four years, yet didn’t know he was married and a father.
Investigators have confirmed “not only the premeditated character” of the attack but also that Lahouaiej Bouhlel “benefited from support and complicity in the preparation and carrying out of his criminal act”, Molins said.
Investigators initially said Bouhlel appeared to have undergone a lightning-quick radicalisation but the picture emerging is of a long-planned attack.
But the French government has faced growing criticism about the extent of security measures and some reports have suggested the CCTV footage may show where and how police were deployed. Also on the phone was an image of an article on a Tunisian man killed in January after he tried to attack a police station in Paris.
As the Bastille Day crowd enjoyed festivities on Nice’s Promenade des Anglais, Lahouaiej-Bouhlel careered his large white lorry towards them.
Molins said the two Mohameds contacted each other 1,278 times between July 2015 and July 2016. “They have brought in the soldiers of Allah to finish the job”.
The aftermath of the Nice attack has seen France being torn apart, with finger-pointing and accusations that security was wanting despite the state of emergency that has been in place since the Paris attacks last November.
Analyses of Bouhlel’s computer and cellphone showed a wide-range of images and internet searches showing a fascination with violence and jihadist movements such as Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group.
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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.
