A man from Seine-et-Marnais was arrested on Saturday night after a frenzied action that began with a series of graffiti and ended with arson.
It all started with graffiti discovered on the church of Lieusaint in the Seine-et-Marne département. The act of vandalism was committed on the night of Wednesday May 3 to Thursday May 4. Arabic inscriptions such as “Allah is great” (with spelling mistakes) were discovered. The following night, damage was done to the war memorial in Barbizon and to the façade of the Crédit Mutuelle bank in Melun. A Cross of David was tampered with, the other inscriptions could not be deciphered.
Then, on Friday night, a fire broke out at the Total Access petrol station in Saint Fargeau-Ponthierry. Three petrol pumps were on fire. The fire brigade was called at around 3am and was able to quell the flames two hours later. The road was closed all the way to the A6 motorway. Little doubt for the investigators: it was arson. The arsonist had also tried to set fire to about 50 gas bottles. Fortunately, there was no explosion and no injuries. France Bleu
Within 72 hours, the police were able to establish a link between the various offences and arrest the alleged perpetrator. He, a 45-year-old resident of Moisenay, admitted to the offences. A psychiatric expert concluded that his judgement was impaired.
“In police custody, the man told us that we would have done well to stop him as he was planning to set fire to the forest of Fontainebleau…”. Jérôme Georges, central commissioner of the Melun Val de Seine (Seine-et-Marne) conurbation, was relieved.
It all starts with slogans written in Arabic (” Allah is great “; ” No deity but Allah “, according to a specialist with spelling mistakes) painted in black paint on the back of the church in Lieusaint. The damages were committed during the night of Wednesday May 3 to Thursday May 4. Le Parisien