A man in his forties was indicted for "criminal terrorist criminal conspiracy" as well as for "possession and surrender of category A and B weapons in connection with a terrorist enterprise", as part of a the investigation of the attacks in Trèbes and Carcassonne in March 2018. Eight people are now suspected in this case. He was left free under judicial supervision.
Suspected of duplicity in helping the assailant
According to Le Parisien, he is a former soldier in the private sector, who worked as an indicator for the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI). Converted to Islam, he would have rubbed many young people in the Aude as part of social activities, including the killer Radouane Lakdim. Faced with the investigators, this former soldier allegedly approached Lakdim to collect information, which he passed on to his intelligence interlocutors. But justice suspects him of having shown duplicity by helping the attacker to obtain arms, writes Le Parisien.
On 23 March 2017, Radouane Lakdim, 25, stole a car in Carcassonne from which he shot the passenger and shot the driver. He had then shot at police in front of their barracks, before entering a Super U supermarket in Trèbes where he had killed a butcher, a client and Lieutenant-Colonel Gendarmerie Arnaud Beltrame, who had been hostage to the place of a woman.
Attack claimed by the IS
The assailant was eventually shot by gendarmes from the GIGN antenna in Toulouse. The attacks had been claimed by the jihadist Islamic State (IS) organization. Eight people in total were indicted in this case, including Lakdim's companion, Marine P., a young convert to Islam then aged 16.
Faced with the investigators, the young woman had claimed that his companion held "5 or 6 machetes and knives (...), two shotguns, (...) a Glock 31", hidden under his mattress, but the police had not found this arsenal, object of an important part of the investigations.