Overview

• A video filmed on the night of August 4 shows a man lighting a cigarette with the eternal flame at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath Paris’s Arc de Triomphe.
• Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed the arrest of the suspect in Paris and his placement in judicial custody for violating a funerary monument.
• The Prefecture of Police referred the case to the Paris public prosecutor and opened an investigation under Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
• Prosecutors plan to charge the 47-year-old Moroccan national under Article 225-17 of the Penal Code, carrying up to one year in prison, a €15,000 fine and revocation of his residence permit.
• Minister Delegate Patricia Mirallès denounced the act as an insult to French military memory and has called for exemplary legal sanctions.