Seven alleged members of the Lyon ultra-right were indicted for “criminal association” and two of them imprisoned on Friday, almost three months after an attack on an association premises in Old Lyon where a conference on Gaza was taking place.
The seven men were arrested Tuesday morning at the request of the investigating judges by agents of the judicial police, assisted by the anti-terrorism sub-directorate (SDAT), along with an eighth suspect, who was released on Wednesday .
Presented Thursday and Friday to the investigating judges, they were indicted for “criminal association”, a charge punishable by five to ten years in prison, but also for “participation in a group formed with a view to preparing violence or damage,” indicated the prosecution in a short press release.
Three of them are also being prosecuted for “carrying weapons”, according to this source.
Known figures of the Lyon ultra-right
Five were released under judicial supervision and two imprisoned after a hearing before a liberty and detention judge, which was attended by AFP.
These two men, aged around twenty, are known figures of the Lyon ultra-right and campaigned within the nationalist group Bastion Social before its dissolution in 2019.
One of them, Eliot Bertin, then founded a new group called Lyon Populaire.
Spotted by the ultra-left in several violent actions in recent years, he legitimized the use of violence through a right to self-defense in an interview given to Radio France in November.
The other, Tristan Conchon, was sentenced to six months in prison in October 2022 for violence against ultra-left activists.
At the hearing, the prosecution requested their continued detention, highlighting the risk of “consultation” between individuals who claim the same “ideology”.
The attack left three seriously injured
All are accused of having participated, on November 11, in acts of intimidation and violence on a premises, where a conference organized by the Palestine 69 collective was held. In the evening, while a surgeon known for his missions in Gaza presented his work in front of a hundred listeners, dozens of people dressed in black, faces partly masked, tried to force entry using fireworks and iron bars.
The attack left seven people injured, three of them seriously.
A man close to “the ultra-right movement”, according to the prosecutor, was arrested the same evening, in possession of a baseball bat, brass knuckles and a mouthguard.
He was immediately indicted as part of an open judicial investigation, particularly for aggravated violence and damage during a meeting.
The use of data in his phone, video surveillance images and telephone markings allowed investigators to identify other participants.
The attack was claimed on a Telegram loop by the “Guignol Squad”, an informal ultra-right group accustomed to violent actions in Lyon.
A few hundred activists
The French identity movement brings together nearly 3,300 people, including 1,300 on S files, according to a recent parliamentary report.
Beyond its virulent speeches, it represents a concrete threat: twelve violent action projects by the ultra-right have been identified by the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office (Pnat) since 2017, indicated the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin in November .
It has spread across the entire territory but Lyon, one of its historic strongholds, is regularly the scene of banned demonstrations or violence.
The movement, which has a bar, La Traboule, and a combat sports hall, Agogé, in Old Lyon, has a few hundred activists there, according to a police source.
They are mainly divided between the small identity group Les Remparts, born after the dissolution of Génération identitaire in 2021, and Lyon populaire.
Local elected officials, including the environmentalist mayor Grégory Doucet, frequently call for their dissolution and the closure of their premises.
In the meantime, it lost several of its leaders this week: in addition to Eliot Bertin and Tristan Conchon, the former spokesperson for the Remparts Sishina Milinov was sentenced Tuesday to six months in prison for a racist attack committed last week leaving a bar.