2023-12-04 18:32:59
The author of the attack on Saturday near the Eiffel Tower “totally takes responsibility for his actions” during his custody, which is still ongoing on Monday, and “everything suggests” that he “acted alone”, according to a source close to the investigation.
Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, a 26-year-old Franco-Iranian who pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group, says he acted in “reaction to the persecution of Muslims around the world.” He appears “very cold”, “clinical” and “disembodied”, added this source.
This knife attack, a few months before the Summer Olympics in the French capital (July 26-August 11), supports the fears of the intelligence services regarding a risk of importation into France of the Israel/Hamas war, which they consider it an “aggravating factor in the terrorist threat” weighing on the country.
Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab’s In a video published before his action, he pledged allegiance to the IS group, notably providing “his support for jihadists acting in different areas”, he said.
Authorities under pressure
He was arrested following the attack which caused the death of a young German-Filipino tourist and injured two other people, Saturday around 9:30 p.m. near the Bir-Hakeim bridge.
The executive is under pressure following this attack which occurred less than two months following that in Arras (northern France), which cost the life of a teacher in mid-October and led to the Vigipirate plan being raised to the maximum “emergency attack” level. “.
The attacker and a member of his entourage were still in police custody early Monday evening, his parents’ custody having been lifted. The Franco-Iranian’s custody might last until Wednesday evening, as this concerns an anti-terrorism investigation.
“Psychiatric failure”
“There was clearly a psychiatric failure, the doctors considered on several occasions that he was better,” said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin on BFMTV regarding the young man, radicalized since 2015 and subject to an injunction. care involving close psychiatric monitoring and controlled by a coordinating doctor.
Prosecutor Ricard indicated on Sunday evening that the assailant, on file for Islamist radicalization, was “subject to a treatment order involving tight psychiatric monitoring and controlled by a coordinating doctor” until the end of the probation on April 26, 2023, following a new psychiatric assessment.
“There is someone mentally ill, who no longer takes medication to treat his delusions and who undoubtedly acts out. We must think regarding all of this to protect the French,” insisted the Minister of the Interior .
According to the first elements of the investigation, the suspect’s mother had indicated to the police in October that she was worried regarding her son, seeing that he was “withdrawing into himself”, Mr. Ricard reported on Sunday. The police then tried to have him examined by a doctor and hospitalized, something ultimately impossible in the absence of problems, according to a source close to the case.
“Symbolic place”
According to a source close to the investigation, the attacker said he chose to carry out his attack near the Eiffel Tower because it is a “symbolic place” and “he might not stand it being lit in the colors of Israel.
On the square in front of the Puteaux residence, in the west of Paris, where Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab grew up, we remember a child from the “discreet” neighborhood, “a little one who grew up here, who twisted”, testifies “Panther”, a 32-year-old man who requested anonymity. “Coming from a family without any religious commitment”, according to a source close to the investigation, he converted to Islam at 18 and “very quickly” fell into “jihadist ideology”.
He was sentenced to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy to prepare an act of terrorism, following a planned violent action in La Défense, a business district west of Paris, in 2016. He was released from prison in March 2020.
Around 5,200 people are known to be radicalized in France, according to an intelligence source, who specifies that 20% of them have psychiatric disorders.
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