The man responsible for mowing down 84 people in Nice planned the attack in advance, and was aided by a tight-knit team of associates, who helped him sketch out his plan, and acquired weapons for him.
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Bouhlel, 31, drove a 20-ton truck through hundreds who had gathered to watch the Bastille Day fireworks on the Mediterranean city’s waterfront.
People close to Bouhlel, a French-Tunisian who had lived in France legally for years, said he had shown no signs of radicalization until very recently. Photographs taken by Lahouaiej Bouhlel on July 11 and 13 also show Mohamed Oualid G.in the truck that was used to mow down the crowd on July 14, Molins said.
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.
Molins said that one of the suspects had filmed the scene of the crime the day after the carnage, as it crawled with police and journalists.
Three men, identified as Franco-Tunisians Ramzi A and Mohamed Oualid G, and a Tunisian named Chokri C, were charged as accomplices in “murder by a group with terror links”. “I’m happy they have brought some of Allah’s soldiers to finish the job”.
French justice officials said the swoop was not directly connected with the attack in Nice.
Molins said a considerable number of text messages and calls linked Bouhlel to the suspects.
Pictures of Oualid apparently taken in the truck used in the attack were also found on Bouhlel’s phone.
In a statement, Mr Cazeneuve accused the paper of conspiracy theories and said several “heroic” national police – who killed the attacker after an exchange of fire – were stationed further down the promenade.
Surveillance footage revealed the man had made reconnaissance trips to the Promenade des Anglais beachfront where he would eventually carry out the attack.
And President Francois Hollande is holding a special security meeting Friday.
“When there is a tragedy, or in this case an attack with many dead. there will naturally be questions”, Mr Hollande said during a visit to Dublin, adding that the conclusions of the police probe would be announced next week.
“There’s no room for polemics, there’s only room for transparency”, he said.
Liberation claimed that only two municipal police officers and one police auto were present on the entrance to the seaside walk where crowds were gathered for the fireworks show, saying that their findings were contrary to previous statements made by Cazeneuve.
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The attack came just as France was preparing to lift the state of emergency in place since the November attacks in Paris, prompting an immediate reversal of course.
