The explosion and fire that occurred on February 14 at around 1:30 a.m. on rue Arago in the heart of Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque claimed the lives of eight people, including two young children. A tragedy that appears today as a voluntary act, but totally incomprehensible.
the criminal scenario increasingly seems to be taking shape in the context of the investigation into the appalling tragedy that struck Saint-Laurent-de-la-Salanque on February 14th.
The three suspects who were still in police custody this Friday evening, questioned by the gendarmes of the research section of Montpellierwere brought before the courthouse in Perpignan this Saturday, April 9, 2022. One of them, a 27-year-old Algerian, in an irregular situation, who had been seriously burned at the time of the events and evacuated to a specialized service in Montpellier in critical condition, was indicted by the investigating judge for “willful destruction by fire resulting in death and injury”, confirms the public prosecutor Jean-David Cavaillé. He was immediately imprisoned. According to the first elements, the respondent was in the grocery store located on the ground floor of the devastated housing at the time of the tragedy, even after the closure of the establishment, and would have had a decisive role.
What motive?
The other two, the owner of the grocery store, 43 years old and of Tunisian origin, also arrested on Thursday, and another 40-year-old man, arrested on Friday afternoon, were indicted for ” complicity” in these same counts. However, they have requested a contradictory debate before the judge of freedoms and detention, which will be held on Tuesday. In the meantime, they have also been remanded in custody.
It remains to be seen what is the degree of involvement of each of them, their precise role, but above all what is the motive for this terrible affair. Have they confessed? Is this revenge? An insurance scam? A personal dispute? Traffic gone bad? So many questions that should quickly find answers. Knowing, according to our sources, that traces of a fire accelerator would have been found.