in Nice, the emotion intact eight years later

The city of Nice paid tribute this Sunday, filled with emotion as strong as ever, to the victims of the attack of July 14, 2016, which left 86 dead eight years ago. “Yes, there is emotion, but for us emotion is all year round, and on this Bastille Day, a joyous moment for the rest of France, we feel a big gap and also support that diminishes over the years,” confided after the ceremony, in front of the monument to the victims erected on the Promenade des Anglais, Celia Viale, co-president of the Promenade des Anges association, who lost her mother in the attack.

Deliberately sober, with the reading of the names of the 86 dead followed by a minute of silence, the laying of wreaths by associations and authorities, before the Marseillaise and the local anthem, Nissa La Bellathe ceremony ended with the laying of white roses in front of this monument, a metal sculpture named The Angel of the BayIt stands at the very spot, in front of the Palais de la Méditerranée, where the truck driven by Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a thirty-year-old Tunisian living in Nice, ended its deadly journey eight years ago.

On the evening of July 14, 2016, nearly 30,000 people gathered on the seaside for the National Day fireworks. In addition to the 86 killed, several hundred people were injured before Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel was shot dead by the police. While the courts have highlighted the perpetrator’s jihadist motivations, no link with any organization has been established.

Security investigation still ongoing

Victims’ associations remain mobilized today by the investigation into the security conditions of that evening of July 14 in Nice. Entrusted to a specialized unit of the Marseille prosecutor’s office, after its transfer from Nice, it is open for “endangering the lives of others”, “involuntary manslaughter” and “involuntary injuries”. Several people, including the prefect at the time and the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi, then first deputy in charge of security, have been placed under assisted witness status. “We are going to make an appointment with the magistrates to get information on the progress of the investigation. The case stagnated for seven years in Nice, we would not want the same thing to happen in Marseille”, indicated on the sidelines of the ceremony Stéphane Erbs, co-president of the association Promenade des Anges, who lost his wife on the evening of the attack and was himself injured.

On June 13, on appeal, sentences of 18 years of criminal imprisonment, accompanied by a two-thirds security sentence, were handed down by the special assize court of Paris against two defendants found guilty of having supported the terrorist in his murderous enterprise. They appealed to the Court of Cassation. During the first trial of the Nice attack, a total of eight people were tried for complicity and sentenced to sentences of two to 18 years of imprisonment. Only two appealed, Mohamed Ghraieb, a 48-year-old Franco-Tunisian, and Chokri Chafroud, a 44-year-old Tunisian, sentenced at first instance to 18 years of criminal imprisonment (out of 20 years possible) for terrorist criminal association.