Saudi Dakar rally: French probe points to explosive device causing blast
Only an "improvised explosive device" could have caused the explosion that targeted a car in the 2022 Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia in December, a French security source familiar with the matter said on Friday.
An investigation by French authorities into the blast, which left 61-year-old French rally driver and competitor Philippe Boutron severely injured, disputes earlier assurances by Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry that there were no criminal suspicions around the incident.
'I saw everything. It was a deliberate act, there's no doubt about it'
- Richard Gonzalez, Sodicars Racing
Two days before the motorsport event started in Saudi Arabia on 1 January, a car carrying six passengers from the Sodicars Racing team exploded outside the Donatello hotel in the coastal city of Jeddah.
Boutron's legs were left burnt and torn, as doctors considered amputating both legs to save his life.
The other passengers were not hurt. Richard Gonzalez, chairman of Sodicars Racing, said that an explosive device was under the vehicle.
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"I saw everything. It was a deliberate act, there's no doubt about it," Gonzalez said.
However, Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry said that following an initial investigation they had no cause for suspicion, despite international claims that the explosion was a "terrorist attack".
According to AFP, the national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office travelled to Saudi Arabia with investigators from the French General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) and technicians from the technical and scientific police, who were able to take samples from Boutron's vehicle.
Last month, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said they had told the organisers of Dakar Rally and Saudi officials to be "very transparent on what had happened because there were hypotheses that it was a terrorist attack".
He added that France had considered cancelling the rally, which was moved to the Arabian peninsula in 2020, prompting accusations of sportswashing.
Saudi cover-up?
French prosecutors opened the investigation into the explosion on 4 January.
France's secret services were tasked with scrutinising claims of an attempted "cover-up" to avoid embarrassment by Saudi authorities, the Times newspaper reported.
The Dakar Rally has been plagued with difficulties since it was initiated in 1978, originally running between Paris and the Senegalese capital, Dakar.
The event was cancelled in 2008 following security threats in the Sahel region.
It was moved to South America from 2009 to 2019. Despite criticism from public figures of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses, the competition was moved to the kingdom in 2020.
Human Rights Watch has described Saudi Arabia's hosting of the rally as part of an attempt by de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to whitewash the kingdom's "abusive rights reputation using large-scale events, with highly controlled environments, to show a progressive face of the kingdom".
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