On May 24, 2019, around 5:30 p.m., a 24-year-old computer science student left a parcel bomb in the pedestrian street Victor Hugo, in the 2nd arrondissement, in the center of Lyon. The attack left eleven people injured, including a 10-year-old girl.
After nearly five years of investigation, anti-terrorism investigating judges on Friday ordered a trial against this man, Mohamed Hichem Medjoub. He will be tried in Paris before the Assize Court specially composed for attempted assassinations and for violation of the legislation on explosives (manufacture, possession and transport), all in relation to a terrorist enterprise, the anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said on Monday. , confirming information from World.
He wanted to “create a panic” two days before the European elections
Arriving in France in August 2017 with a tourist visa and then in an irregular situation, he had, until the day of the tragedy, remained invisible to intelligence. He finally confessed in police custody, admitting to having made and planted the explosive device. He had notably indicated to investigators that he had “sworn allegiance deep down” to the Islamic State (IS) group, according to the prosecutor’s account at the time of the events.
During his hearings, the main suspect assured that he did not want to cause deaths but only “create panic”, in particular “two days before” the European elections, in order to incite the extreme right.