TerrorismNice terrorist had accomplices, was planning the attack for a year

Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, the truck driver who killed eighty-five people in Nice on Bastille Day, had accomplices – and he had been planning his attack for months, the prosecutor leading the investigation said.

Prosecutor Francois Molins said five suspects were facing terrorism charges for their alleged roles in helping the driver.

FranceInfo reports that the five suspects – only the first name and the first first initial of their last name were made public – are Ramzi A., 22, a French-Tunisian dual national with a police record of petty crimes; Chokri C., 37, a Tunisian citizen with no police record in France; Mohamed Walid G., 40, a French-Tunisian dual national, with no police record; Artan H., 38, a French citizen with no police record; and Enkeledjz Z. 33, a woman with a dual Albanian-French citizenship with no police record.

Molins said on Thursday that a lot of useful information was harvested from Bouhlel’s phone, which, in addition to a list of contacts and calls, also included pictures of the promenade from different angles.

Molin said that there are indications that he had been planning the attack since mid-2015.

Only one of the five suspects now being interrogated had a police record, and none of the five was known by the French intelligence services.

“The investigation will endeavor to determine the links, which have not yet been established, between the perpetrators of the attack, and especially with those acting in the name of the terrorist organization Daesh [ISIS], who has claimed responsibility for this act,” said Molins.