The 30-year-old man, who was with his girlfriend, had triggered a false attack alert because he did not want to miss his train.
by MI with AFP The Lille-Europe station had been temporarily evacuated on Wednesday after the false attack alert (photo illustration). © JF ROLLINGER / ONLY FRANCE / Only France via AFP Published on 07/21/2023 at 7:51 p.m.
After causing a great mess in Lille on Wednesday July 19 in the morning, the 30-year-old responsible for the false alarm of the attack, launched because he did not want to miss his train, was placed in pre-trial detention on Friday. The individual, already convicted on multiple occasions, will be tried on August 30 with his companion, prosecuted for the same facts, after the dismissal of their trial on Friday.
On Wednesday, this 30-year-old delivery driver from the North, whose criminal record has 18 mentions, including six for violence or threats against a spouse, had written two SMS to an SNCF platform: one indicated “terrorist alert” and the other the number of a Paris-Lille train, according to SNCF lawyer, Me Vincent Domnesque. After telephone investigations, he and his companion were arrested as soon as they arrived at Lille station.
READ ALSOFalse alert attack in Lille: 2 arrests, Xavier Bertrand files a complaintBoth recognize the facts, which led to the interruption of traffic, the emergency evacuation of the two Lille stations, one of which for three hours, and the intervention of dozens of national police officers, the Raid, demining services, soldiers and firefighters. They explained that they had come from Gironde, where they recently moved, because they had an appointment to visit their child placed in Pas-de-Calais.
“It’s just human stupidity, this case”
After a delay of their first train, they issued this alert in the hope of triggering checks which would delay the Paris-Lille and allow them to catch the scheduled connection, detailed the court.
“It’s just human stupidity this case,” said at the hearing Me Zouheir Zairi, the lawyer for the companion, a 27-year-old caregiver, presented by the court as the instigator of the false alarm. “All she wanted was to see her child”, and there was “underestimating the consequences of a false alarm”. They made “the choice to wreak havoc […] while even by missing their train, they would have been on time for their appointment, “argued the prosecution, highlighting the” gigantic financial damage “.
The prosecution lifted the reprieve on two sentences previously pronounced against the man, who will now have to serve 18 months in prison, to which will be added the possible sentence decided in this case.
The court also took into account the fact that he had freed himself from a 2022 court decision prohibiting him from all contact with his companion, to the point of settling with her in 2023. The defendants incur two years’ imprisonment and a fine of 30,000 euros.
2023-07-21 18:24:40
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