According to Lyon Mag, Mohamed Hichem Medjdoub, who is on trial in Paris for the bomb attack on Rue Victor-Hugo in Lyon (2nd district) in May 2019, took the floor at the last minute on Monday, April 7, after remaining silent throughout the trial. The 29-year-old proudly took responsibility for his crime: ‘All my goals have been achieved and I have no regrets,’ he said smugly.
Medjdoub, who is accused of attempted murder in connection with a terrorist plot, described his offence as a ‘total victory’ and claimed: ‘I am not a coward’. On May 24, 2019, he planted a homemade bomb filled with bullets outside a bakery in the centre of Lyon, injuring around 15 people, including a ten-year-old girl.
He admitted to investigators that he wanted to spread fear in order to favour a victory for the far right and hoped to trigger a civil war. Attorney General Nicolas Braconnay recalled that the lack of deaths was ‘only due to chance’ and called for life imprisonment with 22 years of preventive detention.
On the witness stand, Medjdoub provoked: ‘You don’t impress me, you don’t scare anyone,’ and added: ‘As a Muslim, an Arab and above all as an Algerian, I don’t expect any moralising from the French.’