On December 30, the vehicle of French driver Philippe Boutron exploded even before the start of the 2022 edition of the Dakar, in Saudi Arabia. Behind this event, there can only be one explanation: the installation of a “improvised explosive device”, indicates this Friday a source close to the file. What further strengthen the thesis of the attack a little more.
According to this source, which confirmed information from RTL, the National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) traveled to Saudi Arabia at the end of January – beginning of February. Its members were accompanied by investigators from the General Directorate of Homeland Security (DGSI) and technicians from the technical and scientific police, who were able to take samples from the vehicle and reach this conclusion.
“Attempted assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise”
The explosion that hit the car in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s second largest city, seriously injured the driver, Frenchman Philippe Boutron. Five other people were also on board. While the Saudi authorities evoked a «accident», Paris emphasized from the start that “the hypothesis of a criminal act” was not ruled out. As of January 4, the Pnat announced that it had opened a preliminary investigation for “attempted assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise”.
Two days before the start of the race, Philippe Boutron was driving at the time of the explosion, near the hotel where the occupants of the vehicle had just spent the night. The crew was heading towards the stadium where the checks on the cars taking part in the rally-raid took place.
Repatriated after being operated on in Saudi Arabia. He was treated at the Percy military hospital in Clamart, near Paris, then placed in an artificial coma for a few days to relieve his pain. At the end of January, in an interview with France Bleu Orléans, he returned to the explosion: “There was a big shock. We didn’t expect it at all. The bomb was put under the floor [de son véhicule d’assistance, ndlr] and I took the floor under my legs.”