Four days after the arson attack on the Beth Yaacov synagogue in La Grande-Motte (Hérault), the main suspect, El Hussein K., aged 33, was charged on Wednesday 28 August with “associating criminal terrorists”, “attempted murder committed on grounds of race or religion in connection with a terrorist enterprise”, “possession and transport of incendiary products with a view to preparing dangerous harm to persons” and “violence against officers of the national police, aggravated by the use of a weapon”. He was remanded in custody. The investigating judge’s decision is in line with the demands of the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office (PNAT), which had announced the opening of a judicial inquiry the same day.
Another man, who was allegedly aware of El Hussein K.’s plans and was suspected of being his accomplice, was also charged with “terrorist criminal association” and was imprisoned. Finally, a third person – who had transported El Hussein K. on Saturday 24 August after his attack between Le Grau-du-Roi (Gard) and Nimes, where he was arrested in the sensitive district of Pissevin – was charged with “concealing a terrorist criminal” and placed under judicial supervision.
The ongoing investigation and hearings in police custody of El Hussein K., which began on Monday, have provided a little more insight into his profile and his path to radicalisation. Born in Blida, Algeria, he arrived in France via Spain in 2016. The father of a child of French nationality in 2019, he is in a regular situation because he has a receipt for a residence permit. Without work or income, he occupies a house in the Pissevin district of Nimes without a lease.
“From various hearings and his social media posts, it appears that EHK has been radicalizing in his religious practice for several months and has also harbored, for a long time, a hatred towards Jews, more specifically focused on the situation in Palestine. »PNAT specifies. On his now-deleted Facebook account, he posted at the end of 2023 an image depicting a lion covered with a Palestinian flag holding in its mouth a rat surrounded by an Israeli flag. PNAT adds in its press release: “He finally told some of his relatives of his intention to go and fight in Gaza.”
Convicted of minor offenses (no license or insurance, drug use), he was not “unknown to the anti-terrorist services, nor to the foreign services”The resigning Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, declared on Sunday, according to whom “the DGSI [direction générale de la sécurité intérieure] does not document that an external organization has asked it to take action”.
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