Police demanded Nice authorities ‘completely’ delete footage of fatal truck attack

Police demanded Nice authorities ‘completely’ delete footage of fatal truck attack – report

Municipal police officers watch screens in the video surveillance control room of the municipal police supervision centre in Nice © Eric Gaillard / Reuters

French anti-terrorist police demanded Nice authorities delete footage from surveillance cameras and any other videos which captured the fatal truck attack on Bastille Day, Le Figaro newspaper reported, citing sources.

The request was sent by Anti-Terrorist Sub-Directorate (SDAT), a special police division battling extremism, to the mayor of Nice’s office on Wednesday, according to the paper.

Le Figaro managed to obtain the copy of the document in which SDAT, citing articles of the criminal and penal codes, demands the city authorities delete “completely” nearly 24 hours of the attack captured on cameras on the Promenade des Anglais.

“Delete the recordings between July 14, 2016 22:30 and July 15, 2016 18:00,” the documents demands.

The anti-terrorist police named six cameras which recordings should be “particularly” deleted. Plus the city authorities should delete any footage from any camera “that captured the crime scene”, the paper added.

"This is the first time we’ve been asked to destroy evidence [from the attack],” a source close to the city authorities said. “The CCTV center and the city of Nice could be prosecuted for this… Also the officers in charge of the cameras don’t have jurisdiction to engage in such operations.”

Le Figaro reported that the day after the attack police demanded from the city authorities to recover 30,000 hours of CCTV-related events. A backup operation is reportedly ongoing and will take place for several days. Le Figaro source said that the authorities are concerned for the safety of the backup operation with this new demand.

The Prosecutor’s Office in Paris later confirmed the information to Le Figaro, saying that the demand had been made “to prevent the uncontrolled distribution of the images [of the attack].” The office added that “of thousands of surveillance cameras” in Nice, at least 140 of them contain“interesting” elements regarding the attack.

Anti-terrorist police, however, claim that their experts have managed to recover 100 percent of the information from Nice cameras.

Since the murderous attack in Nice on July 14, numerous photos and videos have emerged in media showing police approaching and shooting at the truck, which plowed into a crowd of spectators, or depicting the aftermath of the Bastille Day assault.

At least 84 people were killed in what has been called in the city’s worst terrorist attack in history. Weapons and grenades were found in the vehicle following the rampage.

The truck driver was later identified as Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel. It was revealed that he was a 31-year-old French national who was born in Tunisia.

The attacker was aided by a tight-knit team of associates, who helped him sketch out his plan and acquired weapons for him, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said on Thursday.

Why States Still Use Barrel Bombs

Smoke ascends after a Syrian military helicopter allegedly dropped a barrel bomb over the city of Daraya on Jan. 31.(FADI DIRANI/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Barrel bombs are not especially effective weapons. They are often poorly constructed; they fail to detonate more often than other devices constructed for a similar purpose; and their lack of precision means they can have a disproportionate effect on civilian populations. However, combatants continue to use barrel bombs in conflicts, including in recent and ongoing conflicts in Africa and the Middle East, and they are ideally suited to the requirements of resource-poor states. Analysis Barrel bombs are improvised devices that contain explosive filling and shrapnel packed into a container, often in a cylindrical shape such as a barrel. The devices continue to be dropped on towns all over Syria . Indeed, there have been several documented cases of their use in Iraq over the past months, and residents of the city of Mosul, which was re

Russia Looks East for New Oil Markets

Click to Enlarge In the final years of the Soviet Union, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev began orienting his foreign policy toward Asia in response to a rising Japan. Putin has also piloted a much-touted pivot to Asia, coinciding with renewed U.S. interest in the area. A good expression of intent was Russia's hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in 2012 in Vladivostok, near Russia's borders with China and North Korea. Although its efforts in Asia have been limited by more direct interests in Russia's periphery and in Europe, Moscow recently has been able to look more to the east. Part of this renewed interest involves finding new export markets for Russian hydrocarbons. Russia's economy relies on energy exports, particularly crude oil and natural gas exported via pipeline to the West. However, Western Europe is diversifying its energy sources as new supplies come online out of a desire to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies . This has

LONDON POLICE INDIRECTLY ENCOURAGE CRIMINALS TO ATTACK RUSSIAN DIPLOMATIC PROPERTY

ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE A few days ago an unknown perpetrator trespassed on the territory of the Russian Trade Delegation in London, causing damage to the property and the vehicles belonging to the trade delegation , Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said during the September 12 press briefing. The diplomat revealed the response by the London police was discouraging. Police told that the case does not have any prospects and is likely to be closed. This was made despite the fact that the British law enforcement was provided with video surveillance tapes and detailed information shedding light on the incident. By this byehavior, British law inforcements indirectly encourage criminals to continue attacks on Russian diplomatic property in the UK. Zakharova’s statement on “Trespassing on the Russian Trade Mission premises in London” ( source ): During our briefings, we have repeatedly discussed compliance with the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, specif

ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Search This Blog