Nice attack in 2016: seven men and a woman sent back to the assizes

The investigating judges in charge of the investigation into the attack on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, which left 86 dead on July 14, 2016, decided to dismiss seven men and a woman, three of whom were charged with "

», Before the special assize court on Tuesday 10 November.

To read also: Attack: "My heart cries for Nice and for France"

According to the indictment order signed Monday by four anti-terrorism judges, the three main defendants Mohamed Ghraieb, Chokri Chafroud and Ramzi Arefa are suspected of having been "

" of attack on the part of of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a 21-year-old Tunisian gunned down the same evening by the police.

These two Tunisians and this Franco-Tunisian were also indicted for "

", but the judges abandoned this heavier qualification, considering, like the national anti-terrorism prosecution, that the three men did not 'had no "

" of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, nor of the "

" envisaged.

Five other people, a Tunisian and four Albanians, are sent back to the assizes at their side, but for offenses related to the supply of a weapon to Ramzi Arefa and intended for Lahouaiej-Bouhlel.

But the judges note that "

" of Lahouaiej-Bouhlel.

Four defendants are currently in custody, two others are under judicial supervision while two others are on the run and are the subject of arrest warrants dating from April and July.

All can still appeal their referral to the Assizes, a trial that cannot be held before 2022.

During this evening of crowds and fireworks in Nice, the 21-year-old Tunisian had mown 86 people, including fifteen minors and 33 foreigners, in four minutes, driving a rental vehicle.

Multiple steps to rent the truck, scouting on the pedestrian part of the "

" in order to multiply the victims and "

": the judges estimate in their order that Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, even without "

" with the Islamic State group, which had claimed responsibility for the attack, "

".

The judges recall the "

", but these questions "

" the terrorist nature of his act.

865 people or associations became civil parties in this investigation into an attack that had aroused international emotion.

This referral to the assizes comes less than two weeks after a new attack in Nice on which anti-terrorism magistrates are investigating.

A 21-year-old Tunisian, Brahim Aouissaoui, killed a man and two women with a knife on October 29 at the basilica in Nice.