The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Rambouillet attack: what to remember a day after the attack

2021-04-25T11:17:31.108Z


Early Friday afternoon, an official from the Rambouillet police station was slaughtered by a Tunisian who entered France illegally in 2009 but was regularized in 2019.


It is 2:20 pm on Friday 23 April when Jamel G. enters the airlock of the Rambouillet police station, about sixty kilometers south-west of Paris.

In this wealthy city of Yvelines, a new deadly jihadist attack was then about to be committed, six months after the slaughter of Professor Samuel Paty in Conflans-Sainte-Honorine in Val-d'Oise.

Read also: The editorial in

Le Figaro

: "Islamist attack, the blatant denial of reality"

What happened ?

The Islamist terrorist stabbed twice in the throat of Stéphanie M., a police administrative official who had just changed her parking disc.

Before hitting her fatally, the jihadist would have shouted "

Allah Akbar

".

The official died on the spot, despite the intervention of the firefighters.

Of Tunisian nationality, arrived illegally in France in 2009 but regularized in 2019, the perpetrator was shot dead by a sergeant, who "

shot twice, hit him twice

", according to a police source.

Jamel G. also died on the spot.

Where is the investigation?

As early as Friday afternoon, after

"an assessment (...) by the Sdat (Anti-terrorism Sub-Directorate)

", the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation for

"assassination of a person holding public authority in relation with a terrorist enterprise and terrorist criminal association ”.

Read also: Why jihadists take advantage of Ramadan to increase terrorist attacks

Three people, belonging to the entourage of the assailant, Jamel G., 36, were taken into police custody on Friday evening.

According to sources close to the investigation, a person who welcomed the assailant on his arrival in France in 2009 is among those in custody.

The home of this person, located in Val-de-Marne, was searched late Friday afternoon, as was the father's home in Rambouillet, where Jamel G., located in Rambouillet, had moved.

What was the reaction of the executive?

This Saturday, the Head of State went to Thoiry (Yvelines) in the bakery of the husband of Stéphanie M. to support his family "

very upset and very dignified

".

Previously, he had spoken in the morning with the divisional commissioner of Rambouillet to express to him “

all his support as well as to the fellow police officers

”.

To read also: "Horror", "anger", "astonishment" ... After the attack of Rambouillet, the politicians are indignant

As early as Friday, Prime Minister Jean Castex and Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin went there.

"

The Republic has just lost one of its everyday heroines in a barbaric gesture and of infinite cowardice

", reacted the head of government.

This Saturday, the Prime Minister shortened his planned trip to Occitania to return to Paris to take stock in the afternoon with the services and ministers concerned.

Gérald Darmanin asked the prefects on Friday to strengthen security around the police stations and gendarmerie brigades.

To read also: Attack in Rambouillet: "We must look into the security of the police stations"

What do we know about the victim?

Aged 49, Stéphanie M. was an administrative agent in the secretariat of the Rambouillet police station.

Unarmed, the policewoman, seriously injured in the carotid artery could not be revived by the firefighters who arrived on the spot.

She was the mother of two children, aged 13 and 18.

To read also: Bernard Rougier: "The jihadist ideology sees in the police the symbol of the disbelieving authority"

What do we know about the Islamist terrorist?

Jamel G. is a 36-year-old Tunisian national, who arrived in France in 2009 in an irregular situation but has since been regularized, thanks to an exceptional authorization for salaried stay in 2019 and then to a residence permit in December 2020 (valid until December 2021) . Originally from the Sousse region in eastern Tunisia, he was unknown to the police and intelligence services. A delivery driver by profession, Jamel G. had been living for a few years in a house outside of Rambouillet. According to a relative of his family in Tunisia interviewed by AFP, he lived with his aunt and had at least two brothers, including a twin. A police source, however, told

Figaro

that the thirty-something lived with his father.

Read also: Attack in Rambouillet: the assailant Jamel G., a Tunisian radicalized during confinement

One of the terrorist's brothers-in-law told an AFP correspondent that he had recently returned to Tunisia for two weeks.

A cousin in his thirties, Sameh, describes him as a depressed man, followed by a psychiatrist in France.

On his Facebook page, Jamel G., hair rather short as his beard, for several years published public posts devoted in number to the denunciation of Islamophobia or the comments of various polemicists.

But from April 2020, at the time of confinement, he only publishes pious prayers and Koranic verses.

On October 24, eight days after the assassination of college professor Samuel Paty, he changed his profile picture and joined a campaign called:

"Respect Mohammed, prophet of God"

.

What do we still ignore?

The investigation must in particular determine whether Jamel G. has received material or ideological support.

Otherwise, his attack would be part of the threat most feared by the services: those of isolated individuals, often unknown to intelligence, present on the national territory and who, inspired by jihadist propaganda, commit attacks with weapons. white requiring little preparation.

Read also: Terrorism: "France is clearly the most affected country in Europe"

The Rambouillet attack, whose modus operandi corresponds to recurring calls from the Islamic State (IS) group to attack the police, has also not been claimed for the time being.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-04-25

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.