Terror proceedings have been initiated against the Islamist radicalized attacker in Paris who stabbed a German and injured two other people. The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office in Paris said the 26-year-old was being investigated for murder and attempted murder with a terrorist background. The suspect was taken into custody and is being isolated.
The attacker stabbed a 23-year-old German tourist and injured two other people not far from the Eiffel Tower on Saturday evening. The police arrested the man shortly afterwards. Investigators came across a video in which the attacker pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia. After his arrest, the suspect said he could no longer bear the deaths of Muslims in both Afghanistan and Palestine. He expressed the view that France was complicit in Israel’s war in Gaza.
The attacker is said to have cited a call by IS at the end of October as the trigger for his crime, in which its sympathizers were encouraged to attack Jewish targets, the newspaper “Le Parisien” reported on Wednesday evening, citing the police interrogation. The attacker initially set his sights on a memorial for Jewish children deported and murdered during the Second World War at the Vélodrome d’Hiver in Paris. But then he decided to attack near the iconic Eiffel Tower.
The attacker, classified by the authorities as an Islamist threat, had already been sentenced to four years in prison in 2016 for planning an attack. He also suffered from psychological problems.
