The Minister of Foreign Affairs has confirmed the suspicion of terrorist attack against the vehicle occupied by a French crew.
Le Monde with AFP
Was there a terrorist attack on the Rally-Raid Dakar, in Saudi Arabia? After the explosion, on December 30, an assistance car that seriously wounded the French pilot Philippe Boutron before the start of the race, the French Foreign Minister estimates, Friday, January 7, that it is a possibility . “There has already been terrorist acts in Saudi Arabia against French interests,” said Jean-Yve the Drian on RMC .
The minister also stated that he wanted the greatest transparency on the part of the Saudi authorities on the explosion, confirming that French investigators would go there. According to him, the question of a judgment of the Dakar 2022 “pose”.
Saturday, the Saudi authorities had dismissed the track of a criminal act to explain what they described as “accident”. For its part, the French Foreign Ministry has called its nationals to “maximum vigilance” , adding, on the contrary, that “the hypothesis of a criminal act” was ” Not discarded “and recalling that” the terrorist threat persist [AIT] in Saudi Arabia “.
Philippe Boutron out of coma
The national anti-terrorist floor has announced Tuesday to have opened a preliminary inquiry in France for “attempting murderers in relation with a terrorist company” after the explosion, near the city of Jedda, the vehicle in which five French were . After rolling a few hundred meters at the exit of their hotel, a deflanguage occurred on the edge of a gas station. The driver of the vehicle, Philippe Boutron, 61, was seriously injured in the legs.
For Mayeul Barbet, the co-pilot, also present in the vehicle, it is not an accident but of an “attack” with a bomb placed in the spar, one of the Chassis pieces. A thesis shared by Thierry Richard, 57, also present in the 4 × 4 during the drama. “We saw the impact under the vehicle. We are not beasts, we know what it is also a blast. We had a breath in the car, described the pilot at the France-Presse agency (AFP). We were exploded. “
Repatriate after being operated in Saudi Arabia, Philippe Boutron is now “out of the artificial coma in which he had been placed to relieve his sufferings , said Thursday Benedict Boutron, His son, in an interview at RMC.