The perpetrator of Saturday’s fatal knife attack near the Eiffel Tower “accepts and takes responsibility for his actions” while he was still in police custody on Monday, and “everything indicates” that he “acted alone,” a source said briefly before the examination.
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Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, a 26-year-old French-Iranian, says he acted “in response to the persecution of Muslims around the world.” He seemed “very cold,” “clinical” and “disembodied,” the source added.
He was arrested after the attack that killed a young German-Filipino tourist and injured two other people near the Bir Hakeim Bridge (15th arrondissement) at around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, a few months before the Olympic Games the capital (July 26th – August 11th).
The executive is under pressure after this attack, which came less than two months after that of Arras (Pas-de-Calais), which claimed the life of a teacher in mid-October and led to the Vigipirate plan being taken to extremes. “Emergency” level. Attack”.
Two people, the attacker and a person close to him, were still in police custody on Monday evening, we learned from the anti-terror prosecutor’s office, while the measure for his two parents was lifted. That of the attacker could last until Wednesday evening as it is an anti-terrorism investigation.
AFP
“Psychiatric failure”
“There was clearly a psychiatric failure, the doctors assumed on several occasions that he was getting better,” said Gérald Darmanin on BFMTV about the young man, who has been radicalized since 2015 and is subject to a treatment order with psychiatric monitoring carried out by a coordinating Doctor tightens and checks.
The anti-terror prosecutor Jean-François Ricard stated on Sunday evening that the attacker, listed for Islamist radicalization, was subject to “a treatment order with strict psychiatric supervision and the control of a coordinating doctor” until the end of the arrest on February 26, 2023, after another psychiatric assessment .
“There is someone who is mentally ill, who is no longer taking medication to treat his delusions, and who is undoubtedly acting out. We have to think about all of this in order to protect the French,” emphasized the Interior Minister.
According to initial findings from the investigation, the suspect’s mother told police in October that she was worried about her son because she saw him “withdrawing into himself,” Mr. Ricard reported on Sunday.
The police then tried to have him examined by a doctor and admitted to the hospital, which a source familiar with the case said was ultimately impossible due to a lack of problems.
Israel/Hamas conflict
This knife attack also underscores the intelligence community’s fears about the risk of importing the Israel/Hamas war into France, which they see as an “aggravating factor in the terrorist threat” afflicting the country.
Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab’s
In a video released before his action, he pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group and particularly “lent his support to jihadists operating in various areas,” he said.
According to a source close to the investigation, the attacker said he chose his attack near the Eiffel Tower because it was a “symbolic place” and “he couldn’t stand it being lit up in the colors of Israel.”
In the square in front of the Puteaux residence (Hauts-de-Seine), where Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab grew up, we remember a child from the “discreet” neighborhood, “a little child who grew up here and turned around”, testified “Panthère”, a 32-year-old man who asked to remain anonymous.
According to a source close to the investigation, “he came from a family without any religious ties,” converted to Islam at the age of 18 and “very quickly” fell into “jihadist ideology.”
He was sentenced to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy to prepare a terrorist attack following a planned violent operation in La Défense, a business district west of Paris, in 2016.
He was released from prison in March 2020.
According to M. Ricard, the attacker had “established links with people embedded in the jihadist ideology”, such as “one of the future perpetrators” of the murder of Father Hamel in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray (Seine-Maritime).
According to an intelligence source, around 5,200 people are radicalized in France. 20% of them suffer from mental disorders.