Doubt is no longer allowed.
The explosion of a car which had caused serious injuries to the legs of French driver Philippe Boutron, at the end of December on the Dakar, was indeed an attack.
According to RTL, investigators from the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI), the technical and scientific police and the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office dispatched to Saudi Arabia at the end of January detected traces of explosives were found on the carcass of the vehicle.
The only explanation is that of an “
improvised explosive device
”, confides a source on the radio.
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Seriously injured in the explosion of his vehicle in Jeddah on December 30 before the start of the Dakar 2022, Philippe Boutron gave his news to France Bleu Orléans at the end of January.
“
The situation is improving, I was hit in both legs.
(…) I am re-operated again next Monday, I do not know when I will be able to walk again exactly, but my legs are saved and that is the main thing
, “he confided on the phone from the Percy military hospital of Clamart (Hauts-de-Seine).
The president of the US Orléans football club (National) had been placed in an artificial coma to relieve his pain following his repatriation to France.
“There was a big shock.
We didn't expect it at all.
The bomb was put under the floor (of his assistance vehicle, editor's note) and I took the floor under my legs, ”said the 61-year-old pilot.
Following this explosion, the national anti-terrorist prosecutor's office had opened a preliminary investigation for "attempted assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise".
Philippe Boutron was heard twice by DGSI investigators.