• This Friday, the special assize court of Paris gave its motivation sheet to the civil parties.

  • In this 46-page document, she wrote that the assassinations and attempted assassinations perpetrated by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel on the evening of July 14, 2016 on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice "were undoubtedly part of a terrorist aim".

  • The document also reveals that the court believes that "people from [the] entourage [of Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel] could be involved" in the Nice attack.

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel sought "to kill as many people as possible by deliberately moving towards the groups that seemed to him the most vulnerable".

This is what the special assize court of Paris wrote in its motivation sheet.

In this 46-page document, which was given to the civil parties on Friday, the court ruled that the assassinations and attempted assassinations perpetrated by Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel on the evening of July 14, 2016 on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice "were part of unquestionably with a terrorist aim".

In the absence of the latter, killed by the police on the day of the attack which left 86 dead and more than 450 injured, the court presided over by Laurent Raviot sentenced the eight defendants on Tuesday to sentences ranging from two to ten eight years in prison.

He performed his act “calmly”

On the "terrorist character", the court notes in particular that the modus operandi chosen, with a 19-tonne truck, "directs towards a terrorist act inspired by jihadist propaganda" even if it "has not been established that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel had the slightest contact (…) with an Islamist terrorist organization to prepare and then carry out his criminal action”.



The court affirms that the author of the attack carried out his act “with calm, concentration and without showing the slightest apparent emotion, apart from a slight grin or smile”.

She rejected the "alleged madness" of the assailant.

There is "no reliable objective element" to hold that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel "suffered during the material period from a mental illness or a psychiatric disorder which abolished or altered his discernment or the control of his actions".

“People around him could be involved”

If Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel acted alone, "people around him could be involved in this project at the design, preparation or finalization stage", indicated the court, "convinced that the terrorist had in mind the preparation of a second plan of attack which necessarily involved third parties at his side".

Concerning Mohamed Ghraieb, the court noted "an ideological convergence" with the author of the attack.

If he was "anxious to give of him a smooth image respectful of the rules and values ​​of the Republic", he was "inclined to express private support for the perpetrators of attacks", affirms the court based on his exchanges on social networks.

By analyzing his Facebook discussions with Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, Chokri Chafroud can be considered "as a true instigator of the attack, not in the religious or ideological motives of his action but in the choice of his modus operandi", indicated the court in referring to the messages where Chokri Chafroud suggests to his friend to use "a truck as a weapon of destruction".

The lawyers of Mohamed Ghraieb and Chokri Chafroud have announced their intention to appeal.

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  • Justice

  • Nice

  • Paca

  • July 14 attack in Nice

  • Court case

  • assize court

  • Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel