France: Three new indictments in Paris for a driver attacked

Two men and a woman were indicted on Friday in Paris in the investigation into the attack in July on a taxi driver near Le Mans by a man known for his Islamist radicalization and suspected of preparing violent action, a- we learned on Friday from sources close to the matter.

The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) confirmed to AFP that three people had been indicted in particular for criminal terrorist association. Two of them were placed in pre-trial detention, in accordance with the requisitions of the Pnat. The third, who had requested time to prepare her defense, was incarcerated while awaiting a hearing before a liberty and detention judge, he said.

At least seven people are being prosecuted in these investigations led by an anti-terrorism judge at the Paris court.

Two days on the run

At the end of July, a radicalized 30-year-old man suspected of being the attacker was indicted in particular for kidnapping, sequestration, attempted assassination, all in connection with a terrorist enterprise, as well as for terrorist criminal association. criminal. He had been incarcerated.

On July 16, he threatened a taxi driver with a weapon then seriously injured him in the neck, in an isolated place in La Ferté-Bernard (Sarthe) before fleeing.

The investigations are seeking in particular to determine whether he prepared another violent action during his two days on the run.

“She disputes the charges”

Among the suspects indicted on Friday is a Breton in his thirties and on S file, suspected of having had exchanges after the attack with the attacker, AFP learned from a source close to the case. Contacted by AFP, his lawyer, Charles Sabbe, did not want to speak.

A woman living in Le Mans is suspected of having provided the attacker with a rifle. “She contests the charges and any link with any terrorist enterprise,” responded her lawyer Yassine Yakouti, contacted by AFP.

“My office has been defending it for more than twenty years. Although she may have had a criminal record, it has never had any link with terrorist enterprises,” he insisted, regarding this woman who was convicted of drug trafficking.

“A violent action in the name of jihadist ideology”

The third suspect, aged around thirty, is suspected of having served as an intermediary for the attacker, whom he had known for several years according to one of the sources close to the case, so that he could obtain a armed. Contacted by AFP, his lawyer Ambroise Vienet-Legué did not wish to speak.

In this case, investigators believe that the attacker was radicalized in prison while he was detained for common law crimes. After his release from the Alençon-Condé-sur-Sarthe penitentiary center, he “acquired weapons with a view to committing violent action in the name of the jihadist ideology (of the group) of the Islamic State in public places in Mans,” said the Pnat at the time of his indictment.

According to sources close to the matter, it was a synagogue. He finally gave up his plan to move towards attacking a company, according to the anti-terrorism prosecution.

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