The main suspect and two other people indicted, announces the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office

A judicial investigation was opened on Wednesday afternoon, the Pnat announced.

The main suspect in the attack on the synagogue in La Grande-Motte (Hérault), and two other people, including one of his entourage, were indicted on Wednesday August 28, announced the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat). “Two of them were placed in pre-trial detention and the third was placed under judicial supervision, in accordance with all the requests of the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office,” he said in a press release.

Following their police custody, these three people were brought before an investigating judge on Wednesday. A judicial investigation was opened on charges including terrorist criminal association and attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise.

On Saturday morning, shortly before 8:30 a.m., a 33-year-old Algerian was filmed by CCTV cameras, his face uncovered and a Palestinian flag draped around his waist, as he tried to set fire to the Beth Yaacov synagogue in this seaside town, before the morning Shabbat service which welcomes many worshipers.

The suspect did not enter the religious building, but tried to set it on fire, while five people, including the rabbi, were inside. He then had to flee in the face of the rapid intervention of the police before being arrested on Saturday evening in Nîmes (Gard).

The analysis of the video surveillance images is underway in order to determine the weapons held by the suspect. In these images, we can see in particular what appears to be the butt of a handgun on his belt. The investigation, opened in particular for attempted terrorist assassinations, is focused on reconstructing the possible accomplices of the suspect and to specify what the perpetrator’s plan was.