“Today like yesterday, nothing would prevent a crazy truck in the hands of a determined terrorist from attacking the crowd”: at the trial of the Nice attack, the mayor Christian Estrosi defended himself Thursday from any failure of security on the night of the tragedy. The purpose of the trial, which opened on September 5 before the special assize court in Paris, is solely to try eight people for their involvement, to varying degrees, in the attack on the ram truck which caused 86 dead and more than 400 injured on the evening of July 14, 2016.
“No threat had been identified”
But the question of the device intended to protect the Promenade des Anglais emerged over the course of the debates. At the material time, Christian Estrosi was not mayor of Nice, due to multiple mandates, but first deputy of the municipality in charge of security. “No one had considered” this type of attack, he assures us from the outset. “No threat had been identified” in Nice, “this July 14 attack marks the first attack of this type on European soil”.
In six hours of testimony, Christian Estrosi did not avoid emphasis. “The Promenade des Anglais, for the little boy born into a modest family of Italian immigrants (that I was), it’s like for all of Nice + my + Promenade des Anglais. I see myself again, holding my mother’s hand, from the height of my 5 years, looking at General de Gaulle in 1960”.
Video surveillance at the heart of the trial
Above all, he defends tooth and nail the municipal police he created in 2008 and the “video protection” system of 1,836 surveillance cameras then installed in his city (there are nearly 4,000 today). The municipal police did not then have the possibility of communicating directly with the national police, he regrets. On the evening of July 14, 42 municipal police officers had been deployed on the Promenade des Anglais and 34 others were on duty outside the area, he recalled.
Did he know how many members of the national police had been mobilized, asks the court. “No, I had no information before (the attack) on the state of the means available”, replies the elected official, “that’s always how it happens”. During his hearing, former Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve specified that 64 national police officers had been mobilized on the evening of July 14.
As for video surveillance, Christian Estrosi admits that “the passages of the terrorist on the Promenade des Anglais before the attack could only be interpreted as locations after the attack”. “They couldn’t be detected by the human eye,” he adds, “it would have had to be artificial intelligence.” “This use of artificial intelligence is still forbidden to us today (…) I have been calling for facial recognition for a long time”.
Estrosi “uncomfortable”
But, astonished President Raviot, how could a 19-tonne truck drive ten times on the Promenade des Anglais four days before the attack without the police noticing? “There are 100,000 vehicles a day on the Promenade des Anglais in one direction and 80,000 in the other (…) even if there would have been a violation noted, this falls under a 4th category fine for an amount of 90 euros”, replies the witness.
“Most of the civil parties understood that (Christian Estrosi) was uncomfortable (…) we felt him touched at times but the political animal quickly returned”, reacts Alain Dariste, civil party, co-president of the association Promenade des anges which followed the testimony of the mayor from Nice.
“I hope what he said will help the investigation for a second trial on the security side,” he adds. Also following the audience from Nice, Aurélie Amami-Joly expresses her disappointment. “How is it possible not to have noticed the truck when it was filmed a dozen times while it was doing its scouting?”, She wonders. Is it so difficult to ask for forgiveness, a lawyer asks Christian Estrosi at one point. “The security of the people of Nice is ensured by the authority of the State. I do not have to ask for forgiveness in place of the State”, replies the mayor with annoyance.