Armand R., suspected of perpetrating the knife attack in Paris last Saturday, has been placed under investigation, his lawyer announced on Wednesday. The 26-year-old Franco-Iranian has been indicted for “murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise in a legal recidivism”, “attempted murder in connection with a terrorist enterprise in a legal recidivism”, “terrorism conspiracy to prepare for one or more crimes against persons in a legal recidivism”.
Earlier, the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office had requested his detention and announced the opening of a judicial investigation. The assailant, who pledged allegiance to the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), was arrested after the attack, which resulted in the death of a 23-year-old German-Filipino tourist and injured two others near the Pont de Bir-Hakeim (15th arrondissement) spanning the Seine.
A woman from his circle, aged 27, has been released “without charges at this time,” the Prosecutor’s Office said. Classified as an “S” file, she “belongs to the jihadist sphere” and had recently received a marriage proposal from the assailant. She is suspected of exchanging text messages with him just before he carried out the attack, according to information from franceinfo, confirming a report from Europe 1. This woman has also been in contact with several figures in the Islamist movement who have already been convicted of terrorism in France, including Sarah Hervouët, involved in the failed gas canister attack on Notre-Dame in 2016.
