Laval: a 13-year-old schoolboy, suspected of hundreds of bomb threats, indicted

Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Magali Cohen / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP 6:11 p.m., January 18, 2024

A 13-year-old schoolboy residing in Laval was indicted on Thursday for having made, according to him, through "play", numerous false bomb alerts throughout France, we learned on Thursday from the Rennes public prosecutor's office. .

At this stage, the investigation opened in Rennes on these false alerts concerns in particular the Rennes station (January 10), the Rennes and Hyères-Toulon airports (December 31) and two editorial offices of Ouest France (Laval and Rennes, end December).

The minor says he has “without any political or religious consideration”

But "several hundred false alarms throughout the national territory (in particular to the detriment of airports, courts, universities, etc.) could be attributed to this minor", underlines the public prosecutor of Rennes, Philippe Astruc, confirming information of Western France.

Several members of the same family - two parents and two children - residing in Laval were arrested on Monday and placed in police custody as part of this investigation.

"One of the children of the family, a minor born in 2010, in 4th grade, admitted to being the author of numerous bomb threats throughout the national territory", saying "having acted 'playfully' without any consideration political or religious", explains Philippe Astruc.

The teenager used a foreign VPN (virtual private network) to hide his internet address and avoid being located, but the police managed to identify him “through their technical investigations and by activating international cooperation”, specifies the prosecutor.

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The suspect's parents and brother were exonerated and released Tuesday evening.

As for the minor, “who appears to suffer from significant personality disorders”, he was presented to the investigating judge on Thursday afternoon.

He was indicted for disclosure of false information in order to make people believe in dangerous destruction, threat of death, attempted extortion, facts punishable by a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, told AFP Philippe Astruc.

The investigating magistrate also ordered “a provisional judicial educational measure for a period of one year”, he specifies.

“This type of particularly unacceptable threat constitutes a serious attack on public peace and leads to the mobilization of significant police or gendarmerie services to the detriment of other missions, and also presents a particularly anxiety-provoking character in the very real context of threat terrorist that we know", underlined Philippe Astruc.