A 29-year-old Tunisian was arrested on Saturday, bringing the number of people in custody to four in the investigation into the fatal attack on the basilica in Nice. In addition, the Tunisian head of government on Saturday called on his ministers of the interior and justice to cooperate fully with the French authorities.
The fourth suspect, arrested in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes) and placed in police custody around 3 p.m., is suspected of having rubbed shoulders with the assailant, Brahim Issaoui, said a judicial source without further details on the profile of the young man.
Three other men are in police custody: Thursday evening, a first suspect, aged 47, was arrested after being seen alongside the attacker on CCTV footage the day before the attack.
The second, aged 35, was arrested Friday in Nice between 6.30 p.m. and 7 p.m. for having been in contact with the killer the day before the incident. The third 33-year-old man is heard by investigators: is a cousin of the second suspect, he was present during the police search of the latter’s home. “We are trying to clarify its role in all this,” said the judicial source.
The three men were still in custody on Saturday, the judicial source said.
Arrived Tuesday
Brahim Issaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian, arrived in Nice “24 or 48 hours” before the knife attack, which left three dead, according to a source close to the investigation. “It is still far too early to know if he has benefited from complicity, what were his motivations for coming to France, and when this idea germinated in him,” another source close to the matter said on Saturday morning.
“The continuation of the analysis” of the two telephones found in his personal effects, and “the investigation on the Tunisian side” will be “determining”, added this source.
According to a third source close to the investigation, Brahim Issaoui “probably” arrived in Nice on Tuesday. He would have “squatted a building at least one of the two evenings” that he spent in the city and on the CCTV images “we see him near the church the day before” his attack, said this source.
In Tunisia, Brahim Issaoui had a criminal law record of violence and drugs, according to the Tunisian justice which also opened an investigation.
The young man had left the city of Sfax, in central Tunisia, in mid-September, where he lived with his family. Arrived clandestinely in Europe by the Italian island of Lampedusa on September 20, he allegedly landed on the continent, in Bari, in southern Italy, on October 9. According to his mother, Brahim Issaoui, motorcycle repairer, had been praying for two and a half years. “He didn’t go out and communicate with others,” she said.
Tunisian cooperation
“The Ministers of the Interior and of Justice must pay the greatest attention to the investigation of the circumstances of this terrorist act, support and fully cooperate with the French services”, Prime Minister Mechichi indicated in a statement. communicated.
During a meeting on Saturday with his ministers of justice, Mohamed Boussetta, foreign affairs, Othman Jarandi, and interior, Taoufik Charfeddine, the prime minister spoke of the “repercussions of the attack” and reiterated his condemnation ” total and absolute “of this” brutal and cowardly terrorist “operation.
According to Tunisian authorities, the young man was not listed for terrorism. But he “has a criminal record of common law, violence, and drugs”, according to Mohsen Dali, deputy prosecutor general at the Tunis court of the first instance.
On Saturday, Mohsen Dali claimed that Tunisian authorities arrested two people on Friday after posting a video on social media announcing “demand” for the attack by an unknown organization. This claim is not considered credible by the experts of the jihadist movements.
