After the knife attack in Paris which left one dead and two injured, near the Bir-Hakeim bridge, three “members of the entourage” of the attacker, Armand R., a 26-year-old Franco-Iranian, are currently in police custody, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) said on Sunday, December 3. According to a police source at France Télévisions, these are his parents and a girl with whom the suspect had a meeting on Friday. This man, a radical Islamist and known for psychiatric disorders, is himself still in police custody since his arrest on Saturday evening. The Pnat, which has taken up the investigation, will hold a press conference at 7:30 p.m. Follow our live stream.
A “security meeting” in Matignon. Emmanuel Macron asked Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne to keep “a safety meeting” in the afternoon, affirms the entourage of the Head of State to France Télévisions. The Ministers of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, of Justice, Eric Dupond-Moretti and of Health, Aurélien Rousseau are summoned to this meeting.
The attacker confirms his claim. Arrested after the events and placed in police custody, the attacker said he accepted a protest video published on social networks, according to a police source at France Télévisions, and maintained that“he can’t stand[ait] no more seeing Muslims die because of the West”, as had already been declared on Saturday evening according to comments reported by Gérald Darmanin. He then described France as “partner in crime” Israeli military actions in Gaza.
Psychiatric disorders and a criminal past. Armand R., a Frenchman born in 1997 to Iranian parents, was listed as S for his radical Islamism. Convicted for a planned attack in 2016, he spent four years in prison. Suffering from psychiatric disorders, he confirmed in police custody that he was no longer taking any medical treatment, a police source told France Télévisions.
One dead and two injured “in good health”. There is no “no vital prognosis” committed concerning the 60-year-old Frenchman and the 66-year-old Briton, said the Minister of Health, Aurélien Rousseau, on France 3, “but obviously psychological trauma which will be immense”. A man has died after being fatally stabbed. It is a 23-year-old tourist, nurse, of German and Filipino nationality, franceinfo learned from a judicial source.
An investigation opened for assassination. The Pnat announced overnight that it had opened an investigation for “assassination” and “attempted assassination in relation to a terrorist enterprise”, as well as for “criminal terrorist association”.