Rabat – Mohamed Medjdoub, an Algerian citizen who was accused of carrying out a bomb attack in Lyon in May 2019, which had injured more than a dozen people, appeared before a court before a court.
He is charged if he was convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
On May 24, 2019, two days before the European elections, Medjdoub allegedly placed a homemade bomb in a bakery in Victor Hugo Street. The explosionAlthough not powerful, several people were wounded, including a 10-year-old girl.
Morgane, a witness who was on the street at that time, remembers the moment lively. “The explosion made us completely deaf. Our ears rang and we couldn’t hear anything”, she ” told TF1 info.
She and her friends only recognized the extent of their injuries after the initial shock had passed. “It is worrying to face someone who has tried to kill us, but I think we all have to be there to see him.”
Arrest and investigation
Surveillance cameras showed a man on a bike that was hidden from a hat and sunglasses and approached the bakery. The investigators believe that Medjdoub has gripped a paper bag with an explosive device from Tatp, a fleeting substance and with more than 270 metal pellets and screws. He supposedly bought the materials online.
The authorities followed him by analyzing the detonator of the bomb, in which batteries were only sold at Amazon. When she checked purchase records and safety material, they arrested him three days after the attack. The examination showed no evidence of accomplices.
Medjdoub came to France in 2017 to join his family. He had a degree in mathematics and computer science from Algeria, but remained illegally in the country after refusing a student visa.
Radicalization and attempt
Medjdoub has not shown any remorse since his arrest. He told the investigators that he wanted to “frighten” the French to vote for right -wing extremists because he believed that this would deepen the tensions with Muslims and lead to the civil war. He insisted that his goal does not kill but panic. “People should be afraid, even if they go out to buy bread,” he said reports.
In prison, the authorities describe him as openly extremist. He admitted to involve religious discussions with Salah Abdeslam, a key figure in the Paris attacks in November 2015, and claimed that it was his duty to convert other Muslim occupants. “I think I have success,” he told the magistrate.
During his last interrogation in April 2023, Medjdoub expressed Hass against France. “I was humiliated, respected and will take revenge. If I catch a Frenchman, I will behead them and cut them into a thousand pieces,” he said.
The process lasts until April 7th.
