A French anti-terrorist judge has charged three more men suspected of helping to arm the Islamist radical who crushed 86 people to death with a truck in Nice, a judicial source said Saturday.
The three, who were among 11 arrested on Monday in Nice and the western city of Nantes, were remanded into custody on Friday, said the source. The other eight have been released.
The three, aged 24, 31 and 36, were charged in relation to a terrorist plot.
The arrests come five months after Tunisian extremist Mohammad Lahouaiej Bouhlel ploughed a 19-tonne truck into a crowd on the Nice seafront, further traumatising a country reeling from a series of extremist attacks.
The victims from 19 different countries were watching a fireworks display on July 14, the Bastille Day public holiday. Over 400 people were injured.
Six people have already been charged so far over alleged links to the 31-year-old killer but investigators have yet to prove that any of them knew what he was planning.
They include an Albanian couple, Artan Henaj and Enkeledja Zace, and a French-Tunisian national, 21-year-old Ramzi Arefa, suspected of providing a pistol to the killer while not necessarily knowing what he was planning.
The three men charged Friday are linked to varying degrees to these suspects.
The 31-year-old, born in Tunisia, is suspected of being an intermediary between the Albanian couple and Arefa, said a source close to the investigation. The 24-year-old, born in Albania and a cousin of Henaj, is suspected of being implicated in a transaction over a Kalashnikov.
Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) moved quickly after the attack to claim Bouhlel as one of its followers.
Nearly six months after the Nice attack, investigators are still trying to understand the killer’s real motives.
“There is a combination of [Islamist] radicalisation, a fascination for extreme violence and a background of psychological problems,” said a source close to the case.
Separately, an anti-terrorist judge charged a woman as part of a probe into a gang of female extremists arrested after the discovery of gas cylinders packed in a car in Paris in September, said a judicial source Saturday.
The 23-year-old, arrested Tuesday in Mantes-la-Jolie west of Paris, was charged Friday in connection with the alleged plot, foiled after the potentially deadly car was left near Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral on September 4.
source: GULF NEWS
GMT 12:56 2018 Sunday ,09 December
Over 1,700 detained at ‘yellow vest’ protests in FranceGMT 10:17 2018 Friday ,07 December
Paris battens down the hatches ahead of third 'Yellow Vests' protestGMT 13:12 2018 Sunday ,02 December
French authorities may declare state of emergency over street riotsGMT 14:48 2018 Tuesday ,30 October
No plans for Putin-Netanyahu meeting in ParisGMT 18:39 2018 Monday ,15 October
S. Korean president vows joint efforts with France to build peaceMaintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Maintained and developed by Arabs Today Group SAL.
All rights reserved to Arab Today Media Group 2021 ©
Send your comments
Your comment as a visitor