Fourth Suspect in 2016 Nice Attack Released After 3 Years in Custody

The persons charged in connection with the July 14, 2016 attack in Nice are gradually regaining their freedom. This is the case of Mohamed Oualid G, the fourth suspect to benefit from a release.

On August 6, 2019, an investigating judge of the Paris Court ordered the release of Mohamed Oualid G. under house arrest with electronic monitoring, reports Le Parisien. The same source indicates that this order was confirmed ten days later by the Indictment Chamber of the Paris Court of Appeal, following an appeal by the Public Prosecutor’s Office.

For his lawyers, his release is "an absolutely consistent and logical decision given the erosion after lengthy investigations of what was not even charges in the first place but only proximity indices with the author of the Nice attack".

They also indicated that "these three years of pre-trial detention [...] can only be explained by an infinite and therefore excessive caution of the anti-terrorist judges and prosecutors to consider releasing a person under investigation when they are responsible for investigating facts of exceptional gravity".

To date, investigators have found no element linking the Islamic State group, which had claimed the attack, to the killer. Nevertheless, they do not rule out the hypothesis of a probable influence of Daesh on Lahouaiej Bouhlel, psychologically unstable and fascinated by ultra-violence. The attack’s toll was 86 dead and several dozen injured.

According to several sources close to the case, the investigations should be concluded by the end of 2019.