The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office (Pnat) requested the referral to the Criminal Court, and not to the Assizes, of 12 people "convinced of the theses of the ultra-right", suspected of having "developed a project of violent action" at the against Emmanuel Macron in November 2018, we learned this Wednesday from a source close to the investigation.
The judicial investigation was opened shortly after the arrest on November 6, 2018 of several sympathizers of the radical far right.
The investigations then led to the indictment of 14 people in total, for criminal terrorist association, liable to assizes.
Following nearly four years of investigation, the prosecution requested that the charges be dropped for two of them.
And he asked that the other twelve be retained for the criminal association of criminal terrorists, an offense tried before the criminal court.
ceramic knife
The Pnat accuses them of meetings, research for equipment, training and contacts established with a view to a "project of violent action" against the head of state.
The investigators had decided to intervene after learning of the displacement of one of the administrators of the Facebook group, Jean-Pierre Bouyer, a retiree from Isère, in the east of France where Emmanuel Macron was for his memorial journey on the centenary of the end of the Great War.
In a conversation intercepted by the police, this pensioner had mentioned the idea of attacking the head of state with a ceramic knife, which cannot be detected by security checks.
In the vehicle with which he had gone to Moselle had been discovered a dagger in its case and a Bible, according to the final indictment.
The prosecution requested his dismissal for illegal acquisition and transport of a pistol as well.
Initially placed in pre-trial detention, he has been free for several months under judicial supervision.
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The Pnat wants these eleven men and this woman, aged 22 to 62 and who were in contact via a group called the "Barjols", to be tried for criminal association with criminal terrorists, according to the final indictment signed on August 18.
"This correctionalization required by the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor's Office serves as a half-confession, from which we deduce that the procedure is far from being as serious as what had been announced at the start of the investigation", reacted the lawyer of Jean- Pierre Bouyer, Me Olivia Ronen.
The final decision on whether or not to commit to trial, to the assizes or to corrections, now rests with the examining magistrate.