A 21-year-old young man residing in Gironde and suspected of being at the origin of several false bomb threats was imprisoned following his release, the Angoulême public prosecutor's office said on Saturday.
On March 13, the Élie Vinet high school in Barbezieux-Saint-Hilaire in Charente was evacuated following a threatening email
“with terrorist connotations
,” Angoulême public prosecutor Stéphanie Aouine said in a press release.
“The person concerned admitted the facts
,” she added, specifying that checks carried out during his police custody, in particular on his computer equipment,
“made it possible to confirm his accusation and to implicate him in other acts of the same nature committed in two other cities
.
According to the daily
La Charente Libre
, the accused would have sent bomb threat messages announcing explosions in the town halls of Le Mans and Tours, claiming to be part of the Islamic State organization.
He would also have signed these threatening messages with the first name of a young man whom he has been harassing for years, according to a source close to the file.
The young man
“will appear in the coming weeks before the Angoulême criminal court on charges of disclosure of false information in order to make people believe in dangerous destruction, fraudulent access to an automated processing system of personal data, usurpation of identity and apology for terrorism
,” detailed the prosecution.
He was placed in pre-trial detention and a psychiatric assessment must be carried out.
His lawyer, Me Agathe Le Chippey, describes a young man who
“did not have the tools to learn social relationships and live in society”
and underlines his
“psychological and psychiatric fragility”
.
The latter has lived
“recluded since his adolescence in his room, never leaving his house alone
,” she says.