Laurent Nunez, October 15, 2019 in Paris. - Thomas SAMSON / AFP

  • Laurent Nuñez was auditioned this Wednesday by the National Assembly on the dysfunction of the follow-up of Mickaël Harpon.
  • "Weak signals" had been detected without his hierarchy reporting these elements so that investigations could be carried out.
  • The last elements of the investigation specify the terrorist motivation.

"A missed one. This Wednesday, before the commission of inquiry of the National Assembly, the Secretary of State for the Interior, Laurent Nuñez, recognized a series of dysfunctions in the detection of the radicalization of Mickaël Harpon, the assassin of the Paris police headquarters. On October 3, this administrative agent assigned to Parisian intelligence (DRPP) stabbed four of his colleagues to death and seriously injured a fifth before being shot in the prefecture courtyard. If his motivations and his profile are still unclear, the latest developments in the investigation have confirmed the terrorist motive: an hour before the attack, the man notably searched on his phone "how to kill the infidels".

The investigation quickly revealed flaws in the follow-up of this computer specialist, who was deaf. An internal report sent after the attack indicates that Mickaël Harpon was delighted in front of his colleagues of the Charlie Hebdo attack in 2015. These words, reported orally, had not been the subject of a official report. Similarly, some colleagues claim to have noted since his conversion in 2010, a religious decline and a change in his behavior, especially towards women. An accumulation of so-called "weak" signals which were also not "reassembled" and had not given rise to any investigation.

"There should have been investigations"

"I understand it all the more badly since other types of reports were brought back to us," insists Laurent Nuñez who, at the time of the Charlie Hebdo attack, was still director of the cabinet of the Paris police prefect. All the department heads had been made aware of the problem and were instructed to send these signals back. And to specify: “a conversion in an intelligence service must inevitably draw attention […]. There should have been investigations. "

How could this administrative agent, enjoying secret defense security and rubbing shoulders daily with police officers specialized in terrorism issues, have been able to fall between the cracks? Since 2017, the intelligence department of the Paris prefecture of police, to which Mickaël Harpon belonged, has itself carried out investigations into the issuance of secret-defense clearances and possible post-clearance investigations in the event of doubt.

This derogation - this task usually falls to the DGSI - had been desired by the director of the service, Françoise Bilancini, the officers of the prefecture of police were trained by their internal security counterparts. The attack of October 3 put an end to this specificity. Requests for skills are again investigated by internal intelligence and preliminary interviews "will be reinforced," insisted his former director.

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  • Attack at the Paris police headquarters
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