PARIS — The person suspected of stabbing two people outside the former Paris office of Charlie Hebdo final week admitted to investigators that he wished to set the constructing on fireplace, and he railed towards cartoons of the prophet in a video discovered on his cellphone, however he didn’t pledge allegiance to any identified terrorist group, French authorities mentioned on Tuesday.
Jean-François Ricard, the highest antiterrorism prosecutor, mentioned at a information convention that the video confirmed the suspect, Zaher Hassan Mahmood, 25, weeping and denouncing the publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad.
Mr. Ricard mentioned Mr. Mahmood had instructed investigators that he had searched on-line for the tackle for Charlie Hebdo, the satirical newspaper whose workplace was attacked in January 2015, and scouted the realm, however had not realized that they moved. He had initially deliberate to set the previous newspaper’s places of work on fireplace, Mr. Ricard mentioned, including that the police discovered a number of bottles of turpentine in his bag.
However Mr. Mahmood modified his thoughts when he noticed two folks smoking outdoors the constructing close to a mural paying tribute to these killed in 2015, Mr. Ricard mentioned. Pondering they have been workers of the newspaper, he lunged at them with a meat cleaver. The “extraordinarily violent” assault, caught on surveillance cameras, lasted solely 20 seconds, Mr. Ricard mentioned.
Final week’s assault, which got here throughout an ongoing trial for several people linked to the January 2015 killings, introduced fears of terrorism again to the floor in France. In recent times, the threats have developed — from large-scale, organized plots, just like the November 2015 attacks in Paris, through which greater than 100 have been killed, to remoted acts which might be more durable to foretell and stop.
Mr. Ricard mentioned that Mr. Mahmood, who’s from Pakistan and who had by no means been flagged by French intelligence companies prior to now, had no prior convictions.
French authorities had beforehand recognized the person as an 18-year-old primarily based on statements he gave to the police, however on his cellphone investigators discovered an image of his passport figuring out him as 25. Mr. Ricard declined to remark when requested if Pakistani authorities had confirmed Mr. Mahmood’s identification.
Mr. Mahmood was anticipated to be charged with tried homicide and legal conspiracy, each on aggravated counts of terrorism, Mr. Ricard mentioned.
9 folks related to Mr. Mahmood who have been taken into police custody after the assault have been launched with out expenses. Investigators mentioned they supplied insights into his actions forward of the assault. These associates reported that Mr. Mahmood repeatedly watched movies that includes the founding father of Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan, a hard-line Islamic group that organized a number of demonstrations in Pakistan earlier this month after Charlie Hebdo republished cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, investigators mentioned.
Mr. Ricard mentioned that Mr. Mahmood instructed investigators he had seen movies of these protests.
One other man, an Algerian in his 30s, was additionally arrested shortly after the assault, however was later launched with out expenses when it emerged that he was a witness to the assault who ran after Mr. Mahmood right into a practice station to attempt to cease him.
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal on Monday, a person dwelling in Pakistan who recognized himself because the suspect’s father mentioned he was “proud” of his son.
“No matter he did is in his love for Prophet Muhammad,” the person, Arshad Mahmood, instructed the newspaper. “I say no matter he did is true.”
Mr. Mahmood, a farmer in a small village in central Pakistan, instructed The Journal that his son, one in all seven kids, had traveled to France two years in the past with two brothers in quest of work.
Mr. Ricard mentioned that Mr. Mahmood had been taken into the care of French social companies underneath a false identification and had been posing as a minor named Hassan Ali since his arrival in France in the summertime of 2018. He was not a authorized resident, however he was scheduled to fulfill with the native authorities to evaluate his standing on the day of the assault.
In April, two people in southern France were stabbed to death in an assault the police blame on a suspect with no identified ties to a terror group.
Laurent Nuñez, the previous head of France’s home intelligence company, told France Inter radio on Monday that large-scale assaults have been now simpler to intercept and that safety forces have been more and more encountering people who is perhaps impressed by terrorist propaganda however are unaffiliated with any identified terrorist teams.
“Typically, they don’t have any contact with the Syria-Iraq area, in order that they aren’t noticed in that regard,” mentioned Mr. Nuñez, who now coordinates France’s antiterrorism response. “It’s subsequently a lot more durable for intelligence companies to detect.”
