French government orders destruction of Nice attack CCTV footage to prevent leaks
An urgent legal requisition was sent to a urban supervision center in Nice on Wednesday, July 20. The Parquet stated a desire to "avoid the uncontrolled dissemination of these images."
On Wednesday at 11 am, the Anti-Terrorism Sub-Directorate (SDAT) was sent to agents who manage video surveillance of the city, citing Articles 53 and L706-24 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Article R642-1 of the Penal Code erasure asking them "complete" 24 hours of images from six cameras named, numbered, but also of all the scenes from the beginning of the attack that took place on the promenade des Anglais on the night of July 14.
This stunned state agents of urban supervision in Nice. “This is the first time we have been asked to destroy evidence," says a source close to the dossier. The CCTV center and the city of Nice could be prosecuted for this and also the officers in charge of the device do not have the jurisdiction to engage in such operations. ”
The demand is all the more astonishing considering that the SDAT was sent last Friday servers to recover the 30,000 hours of CCTV footage of related events. A backup operation will extend for several days. “We do not know if giving a destruction order while we are in full backup is not going to destroy the whole system."
