Terrorist attack in France: ‘My brother never showed extremism’ – Suspect Brahim Aouissaoui named ‘horrified’ family before massacre

Hours before a sickly terrorist attack on a church in Nice, France, suspected cutler Brahim Aouissaoui made an ominous call outside the building at the very scene of the tragedy.

Upon arriving in Nice, the 21-year-old called his family in Tunisia, his sister Afef revealed to Sky News.

After telling his family that he had arrived in Nice that morning, they watched the church on a video call as Aouissaoui explained that he had been looking for a place to sleep.

After media reports emerged showing the aftermath of the attack, Aouissaoui’s family were horrified to see the same building that he had shown them.

The call was confusing for Aouissaoui’s family, who were unaware of his plans to travel to France.

“He didn’t say [that he planned to leave Tunisia] and we were surprised when he told us that he had come to Italy, “said his older brother Yassin.

“He called me yesterday and told me that he had arrived in France, and I replied: ‘Why? Why didn’t you stay in Italy? You don’t speak French and you don’t know anyone there,'” said his mother. Gamra Issawi said.

The family is still recovering from the attack, shocked by what has happened and insists that this behavior is out of character for Aouissaoui.

“My brother is a friendly person and he never showed extremism,” Yassin told Sky News.

Members of Aouissaoui’s family are now under investigation, security sources in Tunisia confirmed.

His sister Afef also revealed that the police had seized the family’s phones.

The video call took place just hours before Aouissaoui allegedly entered the church with a large knife and killed three people, beheaded a woman and stabbed two others in a bloody rampage at Notre-Dame Basilica.

He is in critical condition at the hospital after police shot him after the attack.

With police working to establish a travel schedule for the terror suspect, Aoussaoui is believed to have arrived in Europe just weeks before launching Thursday’s bloody attack.

A security source told the Parisien newspaper that Aoussaoui had followed the “classic migration route” to Europe from North Africa and reached the Italian island of Lampedusa in a small boat on September 20.

“The young man was then suspected of having contracted Covid-19 and was placed in solitary confinement on a boat,” the source said.

According to the source, Aoussaoui should have been imprisoned before deportation after disembarking on 9 October in the port of Bari without papers and clearly suffering from health problems.

Instead, authorities did not confirm the identity of the killer and he was allowed to leave.

He made his way to Paris and then Nice, traveling by train in a way that did not alert officials.

Second man arrested

News of Aouissaoui’s puzzling phone call comes after French police arrested a second man in connection with the Nice attack.

The 47-year-old is believed to have been in contact with Aouissaoui the night before the attack.

A deputy prosecutor for Tunisia’s counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office, Mohsen Dali, told The Associated Press that the liability claim came in an online post that said the attack was organized by a previously unknown group called Al Mehdi from southern Tunisia. for the Tunisian authorities.