Almost a year to the day after the Nice basilica attack - which claimed the lives of three people on October 29, 2020 - an incident occurred nearby and in the church on Tuesday.
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A 26-year-old Tunisian national who is in an irregular situation was arrested and taken into custody on Tuesday, October 12 in the morning after making threats in Arabic against the sacristan of the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice, according to a report. information from the Actu17 site, relayed by the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi.
Strongly alcoholic, this man would also have screamed in the basilica and spat on the ground.
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Frightened, the new sacristan triggered the emergency button to alert the police.
Quickly returned to places, several municipal police officers arrested the individual and took him into police custody.
"Justice must be extremely severe as we will soon be commemorating the attack on 10/29/2020,"
the mayor of Nice wrote on Twitter in the evening.
Not a case of terrorism
Xavier Bonhomme, the public prosecutor of Nice, for his part wants to put the facts into perspective and calls for caution.
"After hearing the complainants and witnesses, no element in favor of the apology of terrorism or of a threat was collected,"
he told
Le Figaro on
Wednesday.
“The first elements reported were indeed threats, which explains the arrest and police custody.
In the end, the sacristan got scared following a few words in Arabic
”.
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And the magistrate to clarify that the accused, unknown to the police, was released on Tuesday afternoon.
An investigation was opened and entrusted to the judicial support group (GAJ) of the Nice police station.
On October 29, 2020, Brahim Aouissaoui, a 21-year-old Tunisian and proven Islamist, stabbed to death and slaughtered three people in the Notre-Dame basilica.
Among the victims, Vincent Loquès, 54, the sacristan of the basilica.
The terrorist, after having repeatedly shouted "
Allah akbar",
was neutralized and arrested by a team of four municipal police officers called to the scene.