Attack in Nice: a second man arrested, Tunisia is also investigating
A second man was arrested on October 30, 2020, suspected of having rubbed shoulders with the killer of the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption basilica in Nice, the day before the triple murder.
AP Photo / Daniel Cole
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The investigations are continuing to determine the possible complicity of the killer of the Norte-Dame basilica in Nice.
A second man was arrested this Friday, October 30.
Tunisia has also opened an investigation.
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This Friday around 6.30 p.m., a second 35-year-old man was arrested in Nice.
He is suspected of having rubbed shoulders with the attacker the day before the attack.
He was taken into custody, according to judicial sources and close to the investigation.
A 47-year-old man had already been arrested Thursday evening, after being seen alongside the attacker on CCTV footage the day before the incident.
The investigation must "
establish the nature of their contact and their relationship,
" said another source close to the matter.
Tunisia has opened an investigation
In parallel with the French investigation, Tunisia is carrying out its own investigations.
It has been fighting for years the threat of Islamist attacks on its territory.
The jihadist attacks there were more the fact of radicalized people on the Internet than in mosques, according to diplomats quoted by Reuters.
In addition, the family of the assailant of the Basilica of Nice is also the subject of an investigation.
Moments before the attack in Nice, the 21-year-old migrant telephoned his family in Tunisia to tell them that he had just arrived in Nice and that he had found a place to sleep in a stairwell , near a church, remember those close to him.
Shortly after, according to the conclusions of the French police, the young man entered the Basilica of Notre-Dame de l'Assomption where he killed three people while shouting "
Allah Akbar
".
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To read also: Attack in Nice: the assailant, a 21-year-old Tunisian migrant, was unknown to the services
The family of the "surprise" killer
“
He said he had just arrived and that he didn't know anyone there [...].
He said he was going to leave the building in the morning and try to talk to a Tunisian and see if he could stay with him or find a job,
”said Yassine, the assailant's brother.
Even if he had been arrested for a case of knife attack four years ago, when he was still a teenager, he was not included in the file of people radicalized for jihadism neither in Tunisia nor in France, according to the police of the two country.
At Thyna's family home, in the suburbs of Sfax, on the east coast of Tunisia, her parents and nine brothers and sisters keep crying as they remember her.
They had not heard from Brahim since he boarded a small boat in September bound for Lampedusa.
He had not mentioned any specific project before his departure, even though he had already spoken of his desire to join Europe.
Not known for radical positions
“
I want to work like everyone else and get married, buy a house and a car, like everyone else,
” the young assailant had told his brother Yassine.
He had sold gasoline on the black market to finance his trip, a neighbor said.
But when he phoned for the first time to say that he was in Italy, his relatives were surprised, says Yassine.
“
You are not educated.
You don't know the language.
Why are you going there?
His mother, Gamra, told him.
“
Mom, pray for me,
” he replied.
The young man left school young.
He is able to read and write in Arabic but does not know the Latin alphabet which he would have needed in Europe, his sister Afef said.
He worked in a garage, as a gas station attendant and mechanic, and enjoyed traveling the streets of Thyna on a motorcycle.
According to his family and neighbors, he was not known for radical positions, did not frequent any jihadist circle and did not regularly go to the mosque.
According to his brother Yassine, he had started praying often at home two years ago, after giving up drugs and alcohol.
But Yassine wants to believe in his innocence in the attack on the Basilica of Nice.
"
Maybe he heard something when the attack happened, he ran to see what was going on and he was shot
," he says.
►
To read also: Attack of Nice: in front of the Notre-Dame basilica, anger mingles with meditation
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