Knife attack in Annecy: the suspect brought before a judge, the prosecutor will speak

The prosecutor of the Republic of Annecy, Line Bonnet-Mathis, will speak in a few minutes at a press conference about the aftermath of the case of the knife attack that injured six including four children Thursday. The main suspect in this case, Abdalmasih H., left the Annecy police station and was presented to a judge in the morning for his probable indictment.

The custody of Abdalmasih H. ended this Saturday, without the man having come out of his silence. The man, a Syrian refugee in Sweden since 2013, is suspected of having wounded six people, including four children, with a knife, in a park not far from the Pont des Amours in Annecy. Arrested by the police four minutes after the beginning of the attack, the assailant refused to speak during his custody, curling up on the ground, preventing investigators from extracting him from his cell and proceeding with his hearing. This Saturday morning, images broadcast by BFMTV showed the suspect being transferred from the Annecy police station to the court on a medical chair. The man is, this Saturday at noon, presented to a judge for the opening of a judicial investigation for "assassination attempts" and a possible indictment.

" READ ALSO Stabbed in the heart, Annecy the peaceful rocks into horror

Unknown to police and psychiatric services

Abdalmasih H.'s victims were all wounded with knives. Among them, children aged 24 to 36 months, of French, British and Dutch nationality. Their health has improved since the attack. The President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, went to their bedside on Friday, declaring in the wake that the news was "positive".

The suspect's profile continues to raise questions. Born in October 1991, a Syrian national, he had resided in Sweden since 2013 and had been granted subsidiary protection in the country. Arriving in France in November 2022, Abdalmasih H. had since been a "homeless". He was not known to the police or psychiatric services. In his asylum application, rejected by the French Office for the Protection of Refugees (OFPRA), he had presented himself as a "Christian from Syria". He was wearing a Christian cross during the attack and, in a video seen by Le Figaro, he spoke, in English, at the time of taking action, pronouncing these words: "In the name of Jesus Christ".

Questioned by AFP, his ex-wife, a Swedish woman with whom he had a child now aged three, said he had decided to leave Sweden for the France, failing to obtain Swedish citizenship.