(Paris) The assailant who stabbed a teacher to death in France was presented Tuesday to an anti-terrorism judge who indicted him, four days after this attack claimed in the name of the Islamic State organization which plunged the country back into fear jihadist attacks.
The National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) confirmed the indictment of the young man, aged 20, for assassination and attempted assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise, as well as for criminal terrorist association. He also requested his placement in pre-trial detention.
“My client will provide precise answers throughout the investigation and remains at the disposal of justice,” assured his lawyer, Mr.e Verlaine Etame Sone, before the hearing before a judge of freedoms and detention, who must decide on his pre-trial detention.
The prosecution also requested the indictment (indictment) of his brother, aged 16, suspected of having “provided him with a certain amount of support”, particularly regarding “the handling of knives”, explained the anti-terrorism prosecutor Jean-François Ricard during a press conference.
The Pnat also requested the indictment of a cousin of the siblings, aged 15, who would have been “informed of the project” without “doing anything to prevent it”.
Before stabbing to death professor Dominique Bernard in front of a school in Arras, causing a wave of fear in France, Mohammed Mogouchkov “pledged allegiance to the Islamic State at length” in an audio file, explained Mr. Ricard.
In this long recording where he spoke in Arabic, the attacker mentioned his “support for Muslims” in “Iraq”, “Asia” and “Palestine”, but without “directly” linking his act to the war between Israel and Hamas, noted the magistrate.
A few minutes before taking action, the young man had also filmed a video in front of a war memorial in which he attacked “repeatedly the “values of the French” in his own words”, using “repeated remarks particularly threatening,” said Mr. Picard.
“Very special” family
Coming from a family in which several members have been implicated for Islamist radicalization, Mohammed Mogouchkov had been followed by domestic intelligence since the end of July and had been checked the day before the events, according to the authorities.
During his custody, he did not give an explanation for his actions.
In the working-class district of Arras where he lived, neighbors described him as a “cold” and “distant” young man and spoke of a “very special family”, withdrawn into itself.
His older brother was sentenced to five years in prison, in 2023, for not having denounced a planned attack in Paris near the Élysée presidential palace. He was then convicted of “apology of terrorism”.
The father of the attacker, deported in 2018, was a “radical Islamist” and listed as such by the police, according to the Minister of the Interior.
Disturbed tributes
This attack on a teacher, committed three years after the assassination of professor Samuel Paty by a radicalized Islamist in the Paris region, shocked the country and raised fears of new attacks, in a climate weighed down by the war between Israel and Hamas.
France has been placed in an “attack emergency” situation, the highest level of the Vigipirate vigilance and protection system.
Concern was further aggravated with the attack perpetrated Monday evening in Brussels by a radicalized Tunisian suspected of having killed two Swedes in the street. The man was shot dead by police on Tuesday.
“All European states are vulnerable” in the face of the return of “Islamist terrorism,” French President Emmanuel Macron declared on Tuesday.
In Arras, classes resumed under high protection on Tuesday afternoon at the Gambetta school complex where Dominique Bernard taught, whose funeral will be celebrated on Thursday in the town in the presence of the Head of State.
On Monday, tributes to the murdered teacher took place throughout France and, “in the overwhelming majority of cases”, this moment “took place with the deepest dignity”, the Minister of Education underlined on Tuesday. national Gabriel Attal.
But “179 students” have “disturbed this meditation” and will be subject to referrals to the public prosecutor and disciplinary procedures, the minister announced.
On Tuesday, the government also announced that it wanted to expel 11 Russians listed, like the attacker, for Islamist radicalization and considered “active” and “dangerous”.
The Ministry of the Interior also indicated that consideration was underway to include in its draft law on immigration, soon to be examined in Parliament, a provision allowing the withdrawal of the residence permit of a foreigner who “adhers to a jihadist ideology.