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© Associated Press
The data is still scarce, but it is growing: the alleged perpetrator of yesterday’s attack on Notre Dame in Nice, which claimed the lives of three people, is a 21-year-old Tunisian, captured and taken to hospital in critical condition. Some of his contacts may also lead to the attack: A 47-year-old man was recently arrested on suspicion of communicating with the attacker the night before the event.
The French media write that the Tunisian authorities have confirmed his name: he comes from the town of Sidi Umar Buhajla, near Kairouan, and then moved with his family to Sfax. Four years ago, another Tunisian carried out in Nice one of the bloodiest jihadist attacks in the country’s history. A total of 86 people died after the man crashed a truck in celebration of Bastille Day.
However, the details about the arrival, the reasons, and the question of whether he acted alone are relatively few – his alleged route is known.
Brahim al-Wissawi is believed to have arrived in France in October, according to an AFP source in the investigation. A few weeks earlier, on September 20, he had arrived on the island of Lampedusa after a six-day trip, where the authorities quarantined him before releasing him with the order to leave the area. He was arrested upon arrival from Lampedusa in Bari on October 4, but was ordered to leave the detention center.
“Call me when you get to France”
He has not applied for asylum since arriving from Bari on 9 October. The Guardian notes that al-Wisawi traveled to France illegally like many others; Due to the large number of Tunisians arriving, repatriation procedures are often delayed and, as a result, Tunisians receive documents obliging them to leave Italy within seven days.
According to Liberation, the services are not aware of it. A copy of the Koran, two telephones and a 12-inch knife were found in the perpetrator’s possession, according to the head of the French antiterrorist prosecutor’s office, Jean-François Ricard, along with a bag he left behind. No identity documents were found, but another document, from the Italian Red Cross, showed his name. The Sicilian prosecution confirms that he had no documents, but his photo matches the one they have.
He did not apply for political asylum in France. However, he got in touch with his family. “Call me when you get to France,” her mother told Al Arabiya, who exclusively interviewed her parents in Sfax. His mother explains that she had no idea what her son was doing. A neighbor explains that he showed no extremist tendencies and changed several jobs before going to Italy.
Her sister claims that when she called her, she told her that she would be spending the night in front of the church and added: “Send us a photo of (the view) in front of her.”
Terrorists and migration
The issue of murderers arriving from North Africa and the Middle East is still relevant after the wave of terrorist attacks in Europe in the second half of the last decade, although some of the perpetrators were actually born on the continent.
In a report published earlier this year, Europol noted that there was no evidence of the systematic use of illegal migration by terrorist organizations. However, a UN commission of experts believes that the arrests of nine Syrians, an Egyptian and a Turkmen in Cyprus in May this year are linked to groups working for the Islamic State or Al Qaeda.
The issue is also politically sensitive in Italy, where former Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, leader of the far-right League, has been known in power for his harsh approach against the arrival of ships across the Mediterranean. And after the assassination, he said that if Al Wisawi’s arrival from Lampedusa was confirmed, Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese should resign or be fired.
