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“AZF group” case: members appear in court twenty years later
“AZF group” case: members appear before the court twenty years later – (France Info)
In 2004, the AZF group threatened to detonate bombs on the railway tracks if the state did not pay them a ransom. Two people appear before the judicial court on Tuesday February 13.
The AZF mystery ends. Behind these initials, the name of a group which threatened to explode bombs on the railway tracks if the State did not pay them a ransom of four to eight million euros. At its head, Michel D., 76 years old, retired business manager, and Perrine R., 61 years old, one of his former employees. They appear in court on Tuesday February 13. At the time, these scammers managed to sow panic. Between 2003 and 2004, members of the AZF group sent several blackmail letters, in which they claimed to have placed bombs on the railway tracks.
They were arrested in 2018
The State found a first bomb, unconnected, on February 21, 2004, on the Paris-Toulouse line (Haute-Garonne). Nearly a month later, a second bomb was discovered in Aube. An exchange began between the police and the AZF group via the personal messages section of the newspaper Libération in order to organize the dropping of the ransom by helicopter. After two payment failures, the group announced the suspension of its action. They were arrested in 2018, after being denounced by one of their relatives.
