It was Bastille Day on the French Riviera.
A lawyer was strolling with her mother, friends and a colleague along the beachfront boulevard in Nice to celebrate La Belle France’s national day. Four young sisters from Poland had spent a day of sightseeing. Two Russian students were on a summer break. And a Texas family, on vacation with young children, was taking in some of Europe’s classic sights. The bright lights of the packed boardwalk glittered along the bay like a string of stars.
Those lights would mark a pathway of murder and destruction that night of July 14, 2016. Shortly after the end of a fireworks display, a 21-ton truck careered through the crowds for two kilometers (1¼ miles) like a snow plow, hitting person after person.
The final corpse count was 86, including 15 children and adolescents, while 450 others were maimed.
Eight people go on trial on Monday in a special French terrorism court accused of helping the attacker, Mohammed Lahouaiej Bouhlel,
| ...described at the time as weird loner who became depressed when his wife left him, but really he was a jihad-curious French resident from M'saken, Tunisia and father of three with a taste for petty criminality, a background of psychological problems — whatever that means — and a vast acquaintance in the jihad-curious world who finally dunnit... |
Three suspects have been charged with terrorist conspiracy for alleged links to the attacker. Five others face other criminal charges, including for allegedly providing arms to the assailant. If convicted, they face sentences ranging from five years to life in prison. The verdict is expected in December.
Investigators did not find evidence that any of the suspects were directly involved in the murderous rampage on that hot summer night in 2016.
Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian with French residency, was the lone attacker, and is considered solely responsible for the deaths 86 people, including 33 foreigners from Poland, the United States, Russia, Algeria, Tunisia, Switzerland
...home of the Helvetians, famous for cheese, watches, yodeling, and William Tell...and elsewhere.
The Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling
Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not
reallyMoslems....
group grabbed credit for the carnage. However,
ars longa, vita brevis...
French prosecutors said that while Bouhlel had been inspired by the holy warrior group’s propaganda, Sherlocks found no evidence that IS orchestrated the attack.
Eight months before the Nice attack, on November 13, 2015, a 20-member team of battle-hardened Islamic State holy warriors, spread around Gay Paree to mount coordinated attacks on the Bataclan concert hall, cafes and the national stadium, killing 130 people and injuring hundreds. After nine months of trial, the lone survivor of the murderous group that had terrorized the French capital, Salah Abdeslam, was in June convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole for the deadliest peacetime attack in La Belle France’s history.
The trial of the eight suspects in the Nice attack will take place in the same Gay Paree courtroom as the proceedings against Abdeslam. French law mandates trials of terrorism are held in the capital.
The proceedings will be broadcast live to the Acropolis Convention Center in Nice for those victims’ family members and general public not traveling to Gay Paree. Audio of the trial will also be available online, with a 30-minute delay.
Related:
Bouhlel: 2021-04-26 Prosecutor: French Police Worker's Killer Watched Militant Videos Before Attack, 5th person detained
Bouhlel: 2021-04-25 France reviews terror threat after suspected jihadist attack, 4 arrested
Bouhlel: 2021-04-25 Alleged Accomplice of Nice Truck Attack Islamic Terrorist Found in Italy
Bouhlel: 2021-04-26 Prosecutor: French Police Worker's Killer Watched Militant Videos Before Attack, 5th person detained
Bouhlel: 2021-04-25 France reviews terror threat after suspected jihadist attack, 4 arrested
Bouhlel: 2021-04-25 Alleged Accomplice of Nice Truck Attack Islamic Terrorist Found in Italy