Charles Guyard / Photo credits: GUIZIOU Franck / hemis.fr / hemis.fr / Hemis via AFP 10:05 a.m., October 14, 2023

The alleged assailant of the Arras attack, Mohammed Mogouchkov, of Chechen origin, lived for several years in La Guerche-de-Bretagne, south of Rennes, on the S file for radicalisation and under surveillance by the DGSI. His family had escaped deportation proceedings in 2014. But the municipality of Ille-et-Vilaine had no role to play in this decision.

The alleged assailant of the Arras attack, which killed a teacher at the Gambetta high school, Mohammed Mogouchkov, was on the S file for radicalisation and has been under surveillance since this summer by the DSGI. The individual was even checked the day before the attack, but nothing could be held against him. Wiretaps in recent days did not predict the attack, a police source said. Before settling in the north, the family of the alleged killer lived in La Guerche-de-Bretagne, south of Rennes. It was in this city that the Mogushkovs escaped deportation in 2014.

The municipality of La-Guerche is little concerned

In this somewhat faded three-storey building, apartments are identified by region names. It was behind one of these thin doors, from which a few bursts of voices escaped, that the Mogushkov family lived for a time until 2014. At that time, Pierre Desprès was the mayor of La-Guerche-de-Bretagne. He has not forgotten the Chêne Vert residence. "It's an establishment that posed the usual problems of putting a lot of people together who come from different immigrations," he recalls. "The problems of these families were solved with the gendarmerie, the prefecture, and the city of Rennes, but it was not done with the municipality of La-Guerche."

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The commune was kept out of the way, in particular by the mobilizations organized by several associations directly in Rennes to have an eviction notice against the Mogushkovs annulled, on the grounds that the children were in school. Among them is Mohammed, who is now the presumed perpetrator of the deadly attack in Arras.

When she mentions it here, a certain uneasiness sets in: "I have nothing to say, I prefer to protect myself," says the former primary school principal, now retired. As far as the associations are concerned, there is total silence. As for the prefecture of Ille-et-Vilaine, it had no information to communicate on Friday evening.