By JOHN LEICESTER (Associated Press)
PARIS (AP) — French police investigating a deadly weekend assault close to the Eiffel Tower have been wanting Monday into the psychological well being of the suspected assailant, who swore allegiance to the Islamic State group earlier than stabbing a German-Filipino vacationer to demise and injuring two different folks with a hammer.
The French nationwide taken into police custody, Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab, has a historical past of psychological sickness and of Islamic radicalization, officers stated. He faces a doable preliminary cost of terrorist-related homicide for the Saturday evening assault that raised contemporary questions on safety in Paris earlier than it hosts the Olympic Games subsequent 12 months.
“This is a case that links radical Islam, undeniably, and mental illness. I must tell the French people the truth that there are numerous cases like this,” French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin stated Monday, including that round one-third of suspected radicals below surveillance have psychiatric points.
The stabbing occurred throughout the future safety perimeter that can blanket each banks of the River Seine when the 2024 Summer Games open July 26 with a present and parade for the ten,500 athletes alongside the waterway that cuts via the French capital..
Expected to attract lots of of hundreds of spectators, the scale and scope of the outside extravaganza make it a very daunting public security problem in a metropolis that has been repeatedly hit by extremist assaults.
Sports Minister Amélie Oudéa-Castéra insisted Monday that France was able to safeguarding the opening festivities. They would be the Olympics’ first held exterior of a stadium, that are simpler to safe. There are not any backup plans to maneuver the occasion elsewhere, however the scale of the present and spectator numbers could possibly be tweaked, if vital, the minister stated.
“We don’t have a Plan B. There is a Plan A within which there are several sub-plans,” Oudéa-Castéra stated on France Inter radio.
The suspect in Saturday’s assault beforehand spent greater than 3 1/2 years in jail on a terror conviction. He was on a police record of feared radicals, was being watched by France’s counter-terrorism surveillance company and acquired necessary psychiatric care till April of this 12 months, officers stated.
Speaking to broadcaster BFMTV, the inside minister stated authorities needs to be given better powers to pressure psychiatric remedy on folks in such instances.
“There appears to have been a psychiatric failing because doctors on multiple occasions decided that he was better, that he was more normal and could live freely,” Darmanin stated.
A number of weeks earlier than the assault, the suspect’s mom had informed police that her son had stopped taking his medicines, however she was apparently too frightened of him to ask that he be hospitalized, the minister stated.
“She didn’t want to, apparently because she was scared of her child, which is understandable,” he stated. “She came back a few days later to say that he seemed better.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com”