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Nice, France – The French Defense Council is preparing to hold a meeting on Friday, the day after the terrorist attack that killed three people in a Nice church and sparked a wave of widespread discontent at home and abroad.
Jean-Francois Ricard, the anti-terrorist prosecutor in charge of the investigation, said the attacker, who was seriously injured by police and taken to hospital, is a 21-year-old Tunisian who arrived in France in October after landing on the Italian island. Lampedusa on September 20.
A judicial source announced that a 47-year-old man suspected of being related to him was arrested under police investigation on Thursday night.
After a team of the police of the municipality of Nice managed to immobilize him, the aggressor advanced towards the security forces “in a threatening manner, chanting God is greater, forcing them to shoot,” according to the prosecutor.
Ricard said investigators found two Koran, two telephones and the murder weapon near him, which is “a 12-inch long knife with a 17-centimeter long blade.”
On Thursday, President Emmanuel Macron condemned what he described as an “Islamic terrorist attack” and announced the strengthening of a security plan to raise the number of soldiers patrolling the streets from 3,000 to 7,000.
French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanan expected more attacks on French soil after the attack that shocked the tourist city of Nice.
“We are waging a war against an enemy at home and abroad,” Darmanan told RTL radio. “We have to realize that there will be other events like these horrible attacks,” he said.
After the attack, Macron said: “If they attack us, it is because of the values we possess and our tendency to freedom.” He also referred to a knife attack on a French consulate guard in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, around the same time.
“In France there is only one society, which is the national community. I want to say to all our citizens, regardless of their religion, believe it or not, that at this time we must unite and not succumb to the spirit of division.”
The Nice attack took place almost two weeks after the murder of a university professor in the Paris region, after he showed cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad in a classroom on freedom of expression. His murder for the beheading of an 18-year-old Russian Chechen Islamist shocked the country.
Since then, Macron has promised that France will not abandon the tariffs.
His statements sparked a crisis in the Islamic world, as protests and calls for a boycott of French products increased.
Friday’s newspapers in France reflected the trauma caused by the jihadist attack in the country. Le Figaro wrote in his headline “Nice: Islamic brutality in France”, while Liberation spoke of “the spiral of terror”, and the Catholic newspaper “La Croix” wrote “Resilience”.
On Thursday, the leaders of the 27 member states of the European Union condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and expressed their “solidarity” with France.
They said: “We call on world leaders to work for dialogue and understanding between societies and religions instead of division.”
The two US presidential candidates, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, also condemned the attack on an “ally” of the United States.
Several Islamic countries, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran, “strongly” condemned the attack, while Tunisia, for its part, expressed “its solidarity with the French government and people.”
The Tunisian Prosecutor’s Office began to investigate the identity of the author of the terrorist attack in the French city of Nice, after receiving information about his Tunisian identity.
“After receiving information on the identity of the attacker, we initiated the investigation because the anti-terrorism law requires the prosecution of all Tunisians who have been involved in a terrorist act, whether inside or outside the country,” said the Tunisian court spokesman. and the anti-terrorist chief, Mohsen El-Daly.
“We are investigating a proactive step in the event that judicial authorities request cooperation,” he said. The official added that the investigation is also examining whether there are collaborators within Tunisia with the perpetrator of the attack.
He confirmed that the Tunisian suspect in the Nice attack in France is named Ibrahim El-Ouesaoui, noting that he was not classified as a militant before leaving Tunisia, and a French police source confirmed that Al-Aouissawi was also not classified as a militant in France.
He added that the Prosecutor’s Office entrusted the investigation to a specialized security team to deepen and carry out the necessary investigations.
