Eiffel Tower attack: Judiciary opens trial for terrorist murder
The French-Iranian man attacked a small group of Filipino tourists near the Eiffel Tower on Saturday evening. When a cab driver tried to intervene, he shouted "Allah is great". A 23-year-old with German and Filipino citizenship died from his injuries. The two others, including the girlfriend of the man killed, were physically unharmed.
The perpetrator was well known to the authorities: He had been in prison for four years for planning a jihadist attack in Paris, then underwent psychological treatment for three years until last April and continued to be under surveillance by the secret service. During his interrogation in police custody, he appeared "ice-cold" and "detached", according to investigators. He had reiterated that his attack was a "reaction to the persecution of Muslims".
Since the major attack by the radical Islamic group Hamas on Israel on October 7 and the subsequent massive Israeli shelling of targets in the Gaza Strip, tensions in France, with its large Jewish and Muslim population, have increased massively.
The highest attack alert level is in force in France after a radicalized ex-pupil stabbed a 57-year-old teacher and injured three other staff members at a school in Arras in northern France on 13 October.
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Source: www.stern.de
