The French anti-terrorism prosecutor, Jean-François Ricard, said the French suspect, named as Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, "had recorded a video before committing the act", in which he spoke in Arabic, swore allegiance to Islamic State and supported its jihadists in different areas from Africa to Iraq, Syria and Pakistan.
The video was posted on his X account, which also showed numerous posts on Hamas, Gaza and Palestine. The account was started at the beginning of October. The suspect was still being questioned by police last night after he is alleged to have stabbed the German-Filipino tourist to death and wounded two others one British, one French.
Rajabpour-Miyandoab, who had served four years in prison for planning a radical Islamist attack - before being released in 2020 - had been monitored by the intelligence services for "persistent radicalisation", Ricard said, and had undergone psychiatric treatment and had monitored for psychiatric issues.
Born in 1997 in the affluent town of Neuilly-sur-Seine, west of Paris, his parents are of Iranian origin and the family described by the prosecutor as having "no religious engagement". He converted to Islam aged 18 in 2015 and quickly fell into "jihadist ideology, consulting videos and propaganda and making links to jihadists active in Iraq and Syria", the prosecutor said.
This story is from the December 04, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the December 04, 2023 edition of The Guardian.
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