Following the Champs-Elysées terrorist attack on the evening of April 20th, numerous rumours spread on social media, as well as in the mainstream media. Here are the main ones:

(Translation: “ATTACK ON THE CHAMPS URGENT POLICE SEARCHING FOR #YoussoufElOsri who arrived with Thalys [a railway operator] from Belgium”)

• Youssouf El Osri did not arrive from Belgium on a Thalys train

Some Belgian mainstream media and patriotic websites reported that Youssouf El Osri was involved in the attack, and wanted by police. However, this 35-year-old Belgian was not involved in the attack. The Belgian police had only reported him to French authorities because an Anvers-Paris train ticket was found at his home in connection with another inquiry. On April 21st he went to a police station in his city, Anvers, and, according to his lawyer (quoted by the newspaper Het Nieuwsblad) he was working in a gas station on the night of the Champs-Elysées attack. Perhaps the confusion arose from the communique that ISIS sent, via its press agency Amaq, in which it attributes the attack to a certain Abu Yussef, the Belgian. However, according to sources involved in the investigation, the assailant was a 39-year-old Frenchman, named Karim Cheurfi.

• No second policeman was killed

Quoting a police source, the Reuters Press Agency, the SCP (acronym standing for ‘Syndicat des Commissaires de Police’ – ‘Union of Police Commissioners’), as well as candidate Jean Lassalle on French channel France2, all reported the death of a second policeman during the attack. In reality, according to the Ministry of the Interior, the exact toll was one dead policeman and two other injured policemen.

• The attacker was not on an extremist watch list

Contrary to many media reports, Karim Cheurfi was not on an extremist watch list (a police tool used to identify an individual when he/she tries to cross national borders). However, his name was listed in a file of alerts in the context of terror and radicalization prevention (FSPRT) since January 2017.  Le Monde states that, in December 2016, Cheurfi had been attracting the attention of intelligence services. On February 23rd, 2017, he had been placed in custody, suspected of planning to kill police officers, but was released the day after due to insufficient evidence, states AFP, quoting sources close to the investigation. In March, the file was taken over by the anti-terrorist division of the Paris prosecution service.

• No other attacks occurred in Paris

On France 2, right wing candidate François Fillon said: “We are being told that there are other attacks elsewhere in Paris”. Reuters also reported shootings near the Champs-Elysées, but this information was denied by the spokesman of the Ministry of the Interior.

François Fillon’s team explained to AFP that the candidate was referring to the Sentinelle operation, where a soldier was assaulted at the Etienne Marcel metro station, in the 1st arrondissement of Paris. Colonel Benoît Brulon (also the spokesman of Paris’ military governor) declared that the incident involved a “homeless person who was extremely inebriated”. He also cited the event as a “non-event”.

On Sunday April 23rd, several Facebook pages and Twitter accounts discussed the fact that Marine Le Pen’s posters were absent from French overseas polling stations. They claimed it was the French government’s decision. This absence is actually due to the fact that the Front National party did not provide them in time.

https://twitter.com/samyfaridi/status/855891465532321793

(Translation: “To not display the posters of a candidate in a national election is an infraction of the electoral code, will @MLP_officiel contest this?“)

« A real state affair, French people living abroad voting this Saturday have no opportunity to see National Front’s Marine Le Pen’s poster. I would be surprised if the candidate had not sent the posters, it has to come from higher up in the government, it’s a scheme! » claimed the website ‘France’s patriots’.

On Twitter, many voters were surprised they did not see the Front National candidate’s posters. Websites Fdesouche and Dreuz also spread the news.

💣Pourquoi l'affiche de #Marine n'est elle pas arrivée dans les bureaux de vote à l'étranger?
Ce serait une cause d'annulation des élections! pic.twitter.com/B3xbNLTldF

— Adrenaline ✞ 🇫🇷 (@adrenaline1001) April 23, 2017

http://www.dreuz.info/2017/04/22/aucune-affiche-marine-le-pen-dans-les-bureaux-de-vote-a-letranger/?utm_content=buffere961d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

The absence of Marine Le Pen’s posters in overseas polling stations is due to the Front National having forgotten to send them in time. «The posters are printed by the candidates themselves and they have to deliver them to the electoral commission before the deadline which was Monday April 10th », explained the Foreign Affairs Ministry to AFP. They added « Due to Marine Le Pen’s poster not having been provided, her board will remain blank. »

On Sunday April 23, the French blogging site “La Gauche m’a tuer” shared a story on its Facebook page claiming that President François Hollande had used a private jet to go to vote in the town of Tulle in the first round of France’s presidential election. However, the head of state did not travel on a private jet but on the presidential Falcon, according to the AFP’s correspondent at the presidential palace.

“Hollande travels to vote in Tulle in a private jet: the €30,000 cost of the operation is paid by the French tax-payer”, alleges La Gauche m’a tuer. However, it does not specify that the article to which it refers is from 7 December 2015, following the first round of regional elections held at the height of the international climate conference in Paris. The Facebook post published Sunday afternoon, in full first round of the presidential, was shared more than 14,000 times in 24 hours.

The AFP reporter, who was present in Tulle as the President voted, confirmed that François Hollande arrived and left Corrèze by plane. But he says he traveled aboard the presidential Falcon and not a private jet.

However, the use of this plane for these purposes had already provoked criticism at municipal meetings in March 2014. The cost of the return trip was, however, less than the figure put forward by La Gauche m’a tuer according to an estimate in Le Parisien. The newspaper suggested the trip would cost €9,200. In the May 2014 European elections, Hollande avoided controversy by travelling to Tulle by car.

The prefecture of Corrèze is more than five hours by train from Paris – and the journey is about as long by car.