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Nice attacker plotted for months and had accomplices – prosecutor Nice attacker plotted for months and had accomplices – prosecutor
(35 minutes later)
Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, the man who drove a truck into a crowd on the promenade in Nice on Bastille Day, killing 84 people, plotted his attack for months and had accomplices, the Paris prosecutor has said.Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, the man who drove a truck into a crowd on the promenade in Nice on Bastille Day, killing 84 people, plotted his attack for months and had accomplices, the Paris prosecutor has said.
François Molins said five suspects currently in custody were facing preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping Bouhlel.François Molins said five suspects currently in custody were facing preliminary terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping Bouhlel.
He said information from Bouhlel’s phone showed searches and photos that indicated that Bouhlel had been preparing for an attack since 2015. The suspects are four men two French-Tunisians, a Tunisian and an Albanian and one woman of dual French-Albanian nationality, Molins said.
The new details came as French government tried to reassure its citizens following the country’s third major attack in 18 months. On Thursday the senate was set to pass a bill extending the state of emergency, which gives police extra powers to carry out searches and place people under house arrest, for six months. People close to Bouhlel said he had shown no signs of radicalisation until very recently. But Molins said information from Bouhlel’s phone showed searches and photos that indicated that Bouhlel had been preparing for an attack since 2015.
It is the fourth time the security measures have been extended since Islamic State attacked Paris in November last year, killing 130 people. Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, though authorities have said they had not found signs that the extremist group directed it.
On Wednesday, French MPs voted to allow the authorities to search luggage and vehicles without prior approval from a prosecutor, and to permit police to seize data from computers and mobile phones. Earlier on Thursday, French officials defended the government’s security measures in Nice on the night of the Bastille Day attack, even as the interior minister acknowledged that national police were not, as he had claimed before, stationed at the entrance to closed-off boulevard during the attack.
The legislation also makes it easier for authorities to shut down places of worship suspected of encouraging extremism. Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve’s clarification comes after a newspaper accused French authorities of lacking transparency in their handling of the massacre.
More details soon … Cazeneuve said Thursday that only local police, who are more lightly armed, were guarding the entrance to the Promenade des Anglais when Bouhlel drove a 19- ton truck onto the sidewalk in Nice before mowing down pedestrians who had gathered to watch a holiday fireworks show.
Cazeneuve then launched an internal police investigation Thursday into the handling of the Nice attack.
The criticism comes as the national assembly extended France’s state of emergency for six months. It is the fourth time the security measures have been extended since Islamic State attacked Paris in November last year, killing 130 people.