PARIS (AP) – A Pakistani man accused in a double stabbing outside the former Paris offices of satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo has been handed preliminary terrorism charges.
The suspect told investigators he acted out of anger over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad recently republished by the weekly newspaper.
Charlie Hebdo: Police Investigate ‘Manifesto’ in ‘Islamist Terrorism’ Attack https://t.co/07FUWDFpaU
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 28, 2020
Investigating magistrates handed him preliminary charges of “attempted murder in relation with a terrorist enterprise,” the counterterrorism prosecutor´s office said Wednesday. He will remain in custody pending further investigation. Relatives and associates of the suspect were released without charge.
Counterterrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said the Pakistan-born suspect identified himself as Zaher Hassan Mahmood, 25. Ricard said the assailant did not claim an affiliation with a specific extremist group.
Two people were seriously wounded in last week´s stabbing, which took place outside the newspaper´s former offices where Islamic extremists killed 12 people in January 2015. The two brothers involved in the 2015 attack targeted Charlie Hebdo because they believed the newspaper blasphemed Islam by publishing the same Muhammad caricatures.
According to French media reports, the 18-year-old migrant “takes responsibility” for the stabbing attacks near the former Charlie Hebdo office, justifying it “in the context of the republication of cartoons” of the Muslim prophet, Mohammed. https://t.co/TP6aqJcTdQ
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) September 27, 2020
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