2023-12-03 20:32:13
Still in police custody on Sunday, the radical Islamist who killed a young tourist on Saturday evening near the Eiffel Tower in Paris had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group. His action raises the question of the psychiatric monitoring of certain jihadists.
The attack occurred a few months before the Paris Olympic Games and less than two months following that in Arras which cost the life of a teacher in mid-October and led to the Vigipirate plan being raised to the maximum “emergency attack” level.
Speaking in Arabic in a video, Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, a 26-year-old Franco-Iranian, provided “his support for jihadists acting in different areas”, anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard told the press on Sunday evening.
“This video was notably posted online on his X account (formerly Twitter)”, opened at the beginning of October and which included “numerous publications on Hamas, Gaza and more generally Palestine”, according to the magistrate.
Hammer and knife
In addition to the perpetrator, three other people were placed in police custody, belonging to the perpetrator’s family or entourage, Mr. Ricard said.
The events took place on Saturday around 9:30 p.m. in this highly touristy place in the capital, near the Bir Hakeim bridge. The tourist killed was a 23-year-old German-Filipino who was with two other people of Filipino origin. He received “two hammer blows and four stab wounds,” said the magistrate.
The assailant shouted “Allah akbar” several times and said he was “equipped with an explosive belt,” according to the prosecutor. He also attacked, with a hammer, two men, a 60-year-old Frenchman and a 66-year-old British man, who were slightly injured.
He was subdued by the police using an electric stun gun shortly following the attack and taken into police custody. The investigation is open for “assassination and attempted assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and “association of terrorist criminals with a view to preparing crimes once morest people”.
Mother’s concern
The attacker’s mother had informed the authorities that she was worried regarding her son who was “withdrawing into himself”, he stressed. “Coming from a family without any religious commitment”, Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab converted to Islam at the age of 18, in 2015, and “very quickly” fell into “jihadist ideology”.
“The creation of this account Investigators are seeking in particular to determine when the weapons for the attack were purchased.
Listed for Islamist radicalization, according to a source close to the investigation, the young man was sentenced to five years in prison for criminal conspiracy with a view to preparing an act of terrorism, following a planned violent action at the Defense, in 2016. He was released from prison in 2020 following four years of detention.
Medical monitoring
Investigators will now look into the medical follow-up of the author, a man with a “very unstable profile, very easily influenced”, according to a security source.
“The development of certain psychiatric disorders already noted during his detention led the Pnat (National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office) to require a new psychiatric assessment to be carried out,” recalled Jean-François Ricard.
“Following the latter, the author was subject to a treatment order involving closer psychiatric monitoring and controlled by a coordinating doctor. This monitoring was effective until the end of the probation on April 26, 2023 “, he added.
Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin demanded on Sunday evening that the authorities “can request an injunction for care” for a radicalized person being monitored for psychiatric disorders in order to prevent acts of violence, following an interministerial meeting in Matignon.
Around 5,200 people are known to be radicalized in France, including 1,600 people who are particularly monitored by domestic intelligence (DGSI), according to an intelligence source. Around 20% of these 5,000 people have psychiatric disorders.
German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser denounced an “abominable crime”.
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