Since the seizure by the anti-terrorism prosecution, progress concerning the incident on a service car has been rare. And the gray areas are still numerous. State of play.
The media boom has stopped for more than a week, since the anti-terrorism prosecution seized and the words of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Dréan who considered that “it was worth it to give up this sporting event ”. Consequently, questions and doubts became rarer at the bivouac. The pressure exerted since the explosion of the Sodicars assistance car which caused serious injuries to the legs Philippe Boutron, repatriated to France for treatment, seems less palpable. Of course, the security of the site has been reinforced, as has the start and finish of the special. The deployment of the police is sometimes more visible from one bivouac to another, as in this midweek in Bisha.
“The Saudis demanded absolute discretion from the start”
The pilots, too, have adapted. “Even if we see very few people during the stages, I try to stop as little as possible in liaison,” confided Charlie Herbst, amateur rider. “We pay a little more attention but we do not feel insecure”, adds Xavier de Soultrait, 2e best French overall. The majority rely on the organization: “we trust them to ensure our safety”. And all to focus only on the race, the discharge of energy and concentration being anyway too intense to be able to focus on anything else …
At the same time, opacity reigns over the progress of the investigation. The organizer, ASO, refuses any comment, leaving it to the Saudi authorities to communicate. Except Saudi Arabia doesn’t seem in a big rush to do it. “The authorities have no desire to bring up the case by the end of the Dakar,” says a member of ASO. A French source, quoted in an investigation by Figaro, corroborates: “the Saudis demanded absolute discretion from the start. (…) They don’t want to pollute the race ”.
A delegation from the DGSI is on site
Of course, the will to demonstrate the capacity to organize an international event, at a time when the country wishes to open up more, is at stake. But not only. The country is not really used to transparency in judicial matters. Thus, there has never been any official communication on the progress of the investigations related to the two attacks which targeted French interests in Jeddah last year (a security guard stabbed in front of the consulate, a grenade thrown in a non-Muslim cemetery) .
However, the search for the truth is legitimately essential for those close to Philippe Boutron and the members of the Sodicars team who prefer to remain discreet in the bivouac, as much shocked by the facts as by the total lack of official progress. Admittedly, last weekend, Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke with his Saudi counterpart, the gripper Faysal Ben Farhan. In addition, a delegation from the DGSI arrived on site, in Saudi Arabia.
Diplomatic interests stronger than the truth?
But the gray areas are still numerous. Did the hotel’s video surveillance allow us to see that “three people are approaching the 4 × 4” as we say to Sodicars or just “to know the arrival and departure times of Philippe Boutron and the other passengers ”as David Castera explained last week? Did the car have a ‘Castera’ inscription on its body – named after a staff member of the Dakar boss’s namesake as an insistent rumor at the bivouac suggests? Why did a demining service intervene when the authorities still refuse to speak of an attack?
And above all, will the Saudi authorities share all the information with the French courts? The boss of the Sodicars team, Richard Gonzalez, assured to have taken photos – “we can see where the explosive device was placed”, he confided to Figaro – which he will give to French investigators. According to our information, the other occupants of the pickup would not have washed their clothes so that the DGSI agents could analyze the tissues and perhaps be able to find fragments of an explosive device.
But the investigation could come up against joint diplomatic interests between France and Saudi Arabia. At the beginning of December, Emmanuel Macron was the first Western Head of State to visit Riyadh since the assassination of the opponent Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. At the heart of the discussions: the desire for a common initiative in favor of Lebanon in order to ” to allow the country to emerge from the crisis ”. Is this worth more than the truth of a case that seriously injured a French national? Case to follow.
Photo : Icon Sport
To read on Auto-Moto:
Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton “disillusioned” and retired? The previous Senna
Dakar 2022: the most beautiful photos
Dakar: despite his penalty, Al-Attiyah resists Loeb – VIDEO
Endurance WEC 2022: the entry list, its surprises … and the trends for the 24H of Le Mans
Since the seizure by the anti-terrorism prosecution, progress concerning the incident on a service car has been rare. And the gray areas are still numerous. State of play.
The media boom has stopped for more than a week, since the anti-terrorism prosecution seized and the words of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Dréan who considered that “it was worth it to give up this sporting event ”. Consequently, questions and doubts became rarer at the bivouac. The pressure exerted since the explosion of the Sodicars assistance car which caused serious injuries to the legs Philippe Boutron, repatriated to France for treatment, seems less palpable. Of course, the security of the site has been reinforced, as has the start and finish of the special. The deployment of the police is sometimes more visible from one bivouac to another, as in this midweek in Bisha.
“The Saudis demanded absolute discretion from the start”
The pilots, too, have adapted. “Even if we see very few people during the stages, I try to stop as little as possible in liaison,” confided Charlie Herbst, amateur rider. “We pay a little more attention but we do not feel insecure”, adds Xavier de Soultrait, 2e best French overall. The majority rely on the organization: “we trust them to ensure our safety”. And all to focus only on the race, the discharge of energy and concentration being anyway too intense to be able to focus on anything else …
At the same time, opacity reigns over the progress of the investigation. The organizer, ASO, refuses any comment, leaving it to the Saudi authorities to communicate. Except Saudi Arabia doesn’t seem in a big rush to do it. “The authorities have no desire to bring up the case by the end of the Dakar,” says a member of ASO. A French source, quoted in an investigation by Figaro, corroborates: “the Saudis demanded absolute discretion from the start. (…) They don’t want to pollute the race ”.
A delegation from the DGSI is on site
Of course, the will to demonstrate the capacity to organize an international event, at a time when the country wishes to open up more, is at stake. But not only. The country is not really used to transparency in judicial matters. Thus, there has never been any official communication on the progress of the investigations related to the two attacks which targeted French interests in Jeddah last year (a security guard stabbed in front of the consulate, a grenade thrown in a non-Muslim cemetery) .
However, the search for the truth is legitimately essential for those close to Philippe Boutron and the members of the Sodicars team who prefer to remain discreet in the bivouac, as much shocked by the facts as by the total lack of official progress. Admittedly, last weekend, Jean-Yves Le Drian spoke with his Saudi counterpart, the gripper Faysal Ben Farhan. In addition, a delegation from the DGSI arrived on site, in Saudi Arabia.
Diplomatic interests stronger than the truth?
But the gray areas are still numerous. Did the hotel’s video surveillance allow us to see that “three people are approaching the 4 × 4” as we say to Sodicars or just “to know the arrival and departure times of Philippe Boutron and the other passengers ”as David Castera explained last week? Did the car have a ‘Castera’ inscription on its body – named after a staff member of the Dakar boss’s namesake as an insistent rumor at the bivouac suggests? Why did a demining service intervene when the authorities still refuse to speak of an attack?
And above all, will the Saudi authorities share all the information with the French courts? The boss of the Sodicars team, Richard Gonzalez, assured to have taken photos – “we can see where the explosive device was placed”, he confided to Figaro – which he will give to French investigators. According to our information, the other occupants of the pickup would not have washed their clothes so that the DGSI agents could analyze the tissues and perhaps be able to find fragments of an explosive device.
But the investigation could come up against joint diplomatic interests between France and Saudi Arabia. At the beginning of December, Emmanuel Macron was the first Western Head of State to visit Riyadh since the assassination of the opponent Jamal Khashoggi in 2018. At the heart of the discussions: the desire for a common initiative in favor of Lebanon in order to ” to allow the country to emerge from the crisis ”. Is this worth more than the truth of a case that seriously injured a French national? Case to follow.
Photo : Icon Sport
To read on Auto-Moto:
Formula 1: Lewis Hamilton “disillusioned” and retired? The previous Senna
Dakar 2022: the most beautiful photos
Dakar: despite his penalty, Al-Attiyah resists Loeb – VIDEO
Endurance WEC 2022: the entry list, its surprises … and the trends for the 24H of Le Mans
