Le Figaro Lyon
Wave of arrests in Lyon identity circles.
Eight men were taken into custody this Tuesday in Lyon as part of the investigation into a violent attack carried out in November by ultra-right activists against a conference devoted to Gaza in Old Lyon, we learned from police and judicial sources.
The eight suspects were arrested at the request of an investigating judge by judicial police and anti-terrorism agents, according to one of the sources.
Their police custody could therefore last 96 hours.
According to the ultra-left, one of the local leaders of the student union “La Cocarde” is part of the group arrested on Tuesday, information that it was not possible to confirm.
Éric Carpano, the president of the Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University, reported in a press release the
“wave of questions that occurred yesterday among identity movements”
.
He also recalls the conviction, also this Tuesday, of two individuals, including the former leader of La Cocarde in Lyon, Sinisha M., a student at Lyon 3, for a racist stabbing attack outside a bar. last week.
And calls for
“the dissolution of all ultra-right groups which seriously threaten republican order and public security in universities”
.
Claim of the ultra-right
On the evening of November 11, dozens of people dressed in black, their faces partly masked, attempted to break down the door of a premises in Old Lyon using fireworks and iron bars, according to several witnesses.
Inside, around a hundred people were following a conference by a doctor who worked in Gaza, organized by the Palestine 69 Collective.
The attack left seven injured, three of whom were transferred to hospital.
It had been claimed on a Telegram loop of ultra-right identity and neo-Nazi by the “Guignol Squad”, an informal group customary for violent actions in Lyon.
A man close
to “the ultra-right movement”
was arrested the same evening near the scene, in possession of a baseball bat, brass knuckles and a mouthguard, according to the prosecution.
He was indicted as part of an open judicial investigation, notably for aggravated violence and damage during a meeting.
Calls for dissolution
This action had relaunched calls to dissolve the small ultra-right groups active in Lyon, including Les Remparts, built on the ashes of Génération Identitaire, a collective dissolved in 2021. The Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin assured at the time that
“significant resources (were) mobilized to challenge the perpetrators”
of this coup.
“We will draw the consequences for the incriminated structures
,” he wrote on X.
Since 2021, the university
“has on multiple occasions initiated disciplinary proceedings against students from these movements, sometimes accompanied by orders prohibiting access to the premises, with several reports to the public prosecutor and alerts to the police for acts of intrusion, or accusations of intimidation and threats of violence
, he continues.
The university cannot fight such abuses alone and the State must take its responsibilities.”