PARIS– Three people were released from custody on Monday, pending further investigation, after they allegedly placed five coffins at the foot of the Eiffel Towera Paris landmark that will be highlighted in the next Olympic Games.
According to officials at the Paris prosecutor’s office, the three – citizens of Bulgaria, Germany and Ukraine – placed the coffins, draped with a French flag that included an inscription that read “French soldiers from Ukraine”, near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday,
The reason for the incident was unclear. France is at its highest point alert level before July 26 to August. 11 summer games in Paris and the luxurious outdoor ceremony on the River Seine.
On Monday, the three men were questioned by an investigating judge. Prosecutors asked that they be charged with premeditated violence, authorities told the Associated Press. Placing coffins at the foot of the Paris landmark that millions of tourists visit every year “is considered an act of psychological violence” and has caused monument employees and others “an inability to work,” authorities said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of a pending investigation.
The investigating judge, however, did not press charges but named the three as assisted witnesses, a special status under French law, the prosecutor’s office said. They will remain free pending further investigation.
Those detained in the Eiffel Tower incident include the driver of the vehicle transporting the coffins, a 39-year-old Bulgarian man, as well as two people associated with him – a 25-year-old German man and a 16-year-old man. Ukrainian, who was arrested on board a Flixbus bound for Paris-Berlin, authorities said.
On Friday, French authorities leveled preliminary terrorism charges against an 18-year-old accused of conspiring to target spectators at football games at the Paris Olympics. It was the first foiled plot targeting the Games, which begin in eight weeks.
The Olympic rings will be displayed on the Eiffel Tower. The Olympic and Paralympic medals in Paris are inlaid with pieces of a hexagonal piece of iron removed from the monument.
The Eiffel Tower coffins appeared after other strange incidents in recent months that worried French authorities.
Last month, graffiti showing red hands appeared on Holocaust Memorial in Paris. And in October, shortly after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, stencils of Blue Stars of David appeared on buildings in Paris.
French authorities accused Russian security services of stirring up controversy around the stars. French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne said both incidents involved people paid to destabilize and create divisions in French society.
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Surk reported from Nice, France.
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