After four years of investigation, the anti-terrorism investigating judges announced in March that they had completed their investigations into the deadly attacks in Trèbes and Carcassonne in 2018. Four people had been killed, including Gendarmerie Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, whose throat was slit by the 'assailant.
The anti-terrorist prosecution requested on Friday that seven people, from the entourage of the author - killed at the time - be tried by the special assize court.
The facts date back to the morning of March 23, 2018. Radouane Lakdim, 25, stole a car in Carcassonne, Aude.
Armed, he kills the 61-year-old passenger and injures the 26-year-old driver.
He then fires on a group of CRS (republican security companies) near their barracks, injuring one of them, before joining a Super U supermarket in Trèbes.
Presenting himself as a soldier of the Islamic State group and shouting "Allahou akbar", he kills a butcher and a customer.
He then cut the throat of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame who had given himself up in place of a hostage, before being himself killed on the spot by the GIGN.
Read alsoThe chilling camera between Colonel Beltrame and the terrorist
In its requisitions, signed on Friday and consulted by AFP, the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office (PNAT) considers that the attacks on Radouane Lakdim, a common law offender on file because of his radicalization, "were inspired by deadly propaganda" and the “repeated calls for global jihad” by jihadist organizations.
IS had claimed responsibility for these attacks, a claim deemed "opportunistic" by the prosecution: the investigations did not establish any contact between Radouane Lakdim and the organization, nor an accomplice or co-perpetrator.
After four years of investigations, the PNAT requests that a woman and six men, aged 24 to 33 and belonging to the author's entourage, be tried by the Special Assize Court for their material or intellectual.
The companion of the killer "ardent defender of jihad"
The counter-terrorism prosecutor's office requires that the assailant's girlfriend and closest friend, Marine P., 24, and Samir M., 27, appear for "participation in a criminal terrorist conspiracy".
The young woman, "ardent defender of jihad", "shared the same radical vision of religion as Radouane Lakdim" whom she had been seeing for several years.
For the prosecution, she knew he was planning to take action, which she disputed while in police custody.
Read alsoThe strange message from the companion of Radouane Lakdim
Samir M. was the author's “closest friend”.
Together, “they hung out” in the Ozanam district of Carcassonne, did sports and drug trafficking.
"Yet enlightened on the dangerousness of Radouane Lakdim", he led him to an armory to buy a dagger two weeks before the facts, underlines the prosecution.
Tried for providing "religious arguments"
Sofian B., 24 years old and already convicted when he was a minor for having planned to go to the Iraqi-Syrian zone in 2017, will have to be tried for having provided intellectual support to Radouane Lakdim, considers the PNAT.
He had exchanged with him on a discussion forum acquired by the jihadist ideology, in particular on the interpretation of religious publications.
For the PNAT, the young man "worked on the assailant's deadly project" and provided him with "religious arguments justifying a murderous act".
The brother-in-law had cleaned the apartment
The anti-terrorist prosecutor's office is calling for two other men to be tried for "non-denunciation of a terrorist crime".
One of them, the author's brother-in-law, is also accused of having cleaned the Lakdim's home, taking a large bag with him before a search by the police.
“In terms of terrorism, justice is nonsense because it is incomprehensible that my client is sent back to an assize court and that he is still detained”, reacted to AFP his lawyer, Me Emmanuelle Franck.
"We still do not know what is materially reproached to him apart from being Lakdim's brother-in-law," she added.
Two other men are under threat of trial, in particular for possession of weapons.
The prosecution, however, requests a dismissal for an intelligence informant, suspected of having provided weapons to the assailant.
Read alsoRadouane Lakdim, a petty criminal who became a fanatic
Investigations revealed that he had reported the radicalization of Radouane Lakdim in 2014, then its "intensification".
A note from January 2018 “does not however mention any element of concern and concludes that its monitoring has been put on hold”, notes the PNAT.
It is now up to the investigating judges to order or not a trial at the assizes, following or not the qualifications of the anti-terrorist prosecution.
The other lawyers contacted by AFP did not respond or did not wish to react.
