2023-07-20 00:35:35
Promenade des Anglais, in Nice, on July 15, 2016, after a truck drove into the crowd watching the July 14 fireworks. ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT / AFP
“Homicide and Unintentional Injury” and more only “endangering the lives of others” : six years after the start of the investigation, the prosecution declared itself in favor of a reclassification of the facts in the investigation into the security system in place during the attack in Nice, which killed 86 people in 2016, while the city was celebrating July 14 on the Promenade des Anglais.
In a supplementary indictment rendered on July 5, that The world was able to consult, the Nice prosecutor, Xavier Bonhomme, points to “recklessness and negligence” the evening of the attack in securing the famous avenue along the seaside, facing the Baie des Anges. This is why the magistrate demanded a more severe requalification of the facts.
Independent of the investigation into the terrorist component, a judicial investigation had been opened concerning the securing by the municipal and prefectural authorities of the “Prom’Party” on the evening of the attack. In this investigation, Christian Estrosi, who was assistant in charge of security at the time of the events, and Philippe Pradal, then mayor of Nice, had been placed under the status of assisted witnesses, as had the former prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, Adolphe Colrat, and his chief of staff François-Xavier Lauch.
Read also: Seven years after the Nice attack, a sober tribute paid to the 86 victims
After six years of complicated investigation, the investigation into the flaws in the security system seemed to have stalled, sometimes causing bitter rumors in Nice about possible “protection” of the town hall by justice. Last week, on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the attack, several local associations of victims expressed their “real concern”. On Thursday, the lawyers for the civil parties praised the prosecutor’s decision. “It is a real hope for the victims, assures Olivia Chalus-Pénochet, who represents several of them. This means that that’s it, we pay attention to the file. »
Two survey nodes
The indictment written by the Nice prosecutor – Xavier Bonhomme left his post in Nice to become public prosecutor at the Nîmes Court of Appeal in September – seems to focus, among other things, on two nodes of the investigation. The first concerns the number of agents actually present in the field that evening. According to a report by the General Inspectorate of the National Police (IGPN), sixty-four national police officers were mobilized on the “Prom'”. The prosecutor thus draws up a list of around sixty agents to be interviewed to verify the presence of the planned staff on the ground.
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