positioned below the standing of assisted witness, the suspects stay free | EUROtoday

Published on : 03/06/2024 – 19:07Modified : 04/06/2024 – 10:23

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“The investigating judge placed the three people who were presented to him under the status of assisted witness, not retaining the qualification of violence for the alleged acts,” indicated Monday June 3 the Paris prosecutor's workplace, which had requested the indictment for “premeditated violence” of the three implicated within the affair of the coffins positioned on Saturday on the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

“These people therefore remain free. It is up to the investigating judge to decide what action he intends to take following his referral,” added the prosecution.

The three males are the driving force of the automobile which transported the coffins, of Bulgarian nationality and aged 38, and two different males, one aged 25, born in Germany, the opposite, aged 17, born in Ukraine .

“The interrogation at the first appearance of my client is over, I have obtained his placement under the status of assisted witness,” Me Assia Kaci, the German nationwide’s lawyer, advised AFP.

Me Marie Debien, lawyer for the Bulgarian driver, stated she was happy with the decide's resolution, “which is consistent with the reality of the case”, whereas the prosecution had “requested the placement in pre-trial detention” of her shopper.

“My client remains available to French justice to shed light on these facts,” she added to AFP.

Around 9 a.m. Saturday, on the Quai Branly, these three individuals positioned “five real-size coffins covered with a French flag, with the words 'French soldiers of Ukraine'”, a supply near the matter indicated to the AFP.

The coffins “contained plaster”, she added. The driver of the van was then “arrested near” the Eiffel Tower.

The use of his cellphone demonstrated a hyperlink with a person, additionally of Bulgarian nationality and who had been “identified” by investigators within the affair of the “red hands” tags on the Shoah Memorial in mid-May, specified a police supply.

Two different individuals had been then arrested round 4 p.m. on the Bercy bus station, as they had been getting ready to “take a bus to Berlin”, in accordance with the supply near the case.

Paid 400 euros

When heard, the driving force advised the police that he didn’t know the 2 younger individuals who unloaded the coffins. He stated he met them “the day before with the coffins and asked them to open them to ensure that no body was present”, a police supply detailed to AFP.

The two youngest stated they “met once in Berlin but came separately to France,” added this supply.

All three stated “they were unemployed and needed money,” the police supply stated. The driver declared “to have been paid 120 euros for this mission and the young people 400 euros”.

The investigations had been entrusted to the Paris Territorial Security. The investigation must set up “possible foreign interference”, the supply near the matter stated on Sunday.

The putting of the 5 coffins is “considered an act of psychological violence, not having caused incapacity for work”, the Paris prosecutor's workplace clarified on Monday morning. This offense is punishable by as much as 3 years of imprisonment and a advantageous of 45,000 euros.

This incident echoes two current instances the place the identical suspicions of international manipulation exist.

On the night time of May 13 to 14, crimson palms had been sprayed on the Holocaust memorial in Paris and the police suspect three individuals having fled overseas.

In October, after the beginning of the Israel-Hamas warfare, Stars of David had been sprayed on a number of constructing facades within the Paris area. The information, for which a Moldovan couple was arrested, had been attributed by the French authorities to the Russian safety providers (FSB).

In each instances, they’re “sponsors paid to destabilize and press on the divisions in French society”, estimated the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Stéphane Séjourné, in mid-May.