The suspect, Abd al-Masih, recently divorced his wife in his early 30s and previously lived for 10 years in Sweden, where he was granted refugee status in April, security sources and his ex-wife told AFP.
The attack, which took place in broad daylight in a crowded park in the French city of Annecy (southeast of the country), injuring 6 people, including 4 children, sparked widespread resentment in France.
French government spokesman Olivier Veran said two of the four children injured in Thursday’s attack were still in an “absolute emergency”.
One of the injured children is British and the other Dutch. The children, aged between 22 and 36 months, were transported to Geneva and Grenoble (southeast) after receiving first aid at the scene.
In the latest information, “Agence France Presse” published a phone call she had with the ex-wife of the Onsi attacker, who described the news as “terrible”, explaining that she had not communicated with him for eight months and did not know where he was currently living and had no information about his psychological state.
In the video documenting the moments of the attack, a man appears as he raises his arms to the sky and chants “in the name of Christ” twice in English, before pounces on everyone who passes by and starts his attack using an “Openel folding knife.”
The attacker, dressed in black shorts and a blue scarf on his head, attacked the children, appearing to be hysterical.
What do we know about him?
His name is Abd al-Masih. H, a 32-year-old Syrian refugee, as shown by his driving license.
He was born in 1991 and was not under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he carried out the attack.
He has been in Annecy, without a fixed address, since the fall of 2022 (about 7 months ago).
Since April, he has been granted asylum in Sweden, where he has resided for 10 years, according to the French Ministry of the Interior.
He arrived in France at the end of last year, where he applied for asylum on November 28, 2022. The French government rejected this request at the beginning of the month because he was originally a refugee in Sweden.
He had another month to appeal, so his status is considered legal from the point of view of EU law.
He stated in his asylum file that he is a Christian from Syria, married to a Swedish woman (from the Middle East), and father of a 3-year-old child. He separated from his wife about a year ago.
According to sources close to the investigation, he only spoke English during his arrest and said he was a “Christian from Syria.” And he was wearing a cross when he was arrested.
His wife’s testimony
“It was nice,” the wife says, in a telephone interview with “Agence France Presse,” noting that Abd al-Masih decided to leave Sweden after he failed to obtain Swedish citizenship, and after she also refused to leave because she had succeeded in obtaining a job, the problems began and then They decided to separate, and he moved alone to France.
The woman, whose identity was not announced, said that she met her ex-husband in Turkey, then they moved to Sweden and got married two years later.
And she stated that the last time he contacted her 4 months ago, he told her that he lived in a church in France: “We talked a little bit, but I don’t know more. He disappeared every time, so I don’t know more,” adding that he is in contact with his family.
In contact with his mother, who has lived in the United States for ten years, she told AFP that the suspect was suffering from “severe depression”, adding that the Swedish authorities’ refusal to grant him citizenship “may have driven him insane”.
In this context, the Swedish Migration Agency reported that Abd al-Masih applied for and obtained a residence permit in 2013, but has failed several times to obtain citizenship since 2017.
After the “cowardly attack”… Macron in Annecy
After Prime Minister Elizabeth Bourne and Interior Minister Gerald Darmanan visited the city on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron, who denounced a “cowardly attack” Thursday, arrived in Annecy on Friday, accompanied by his wife Brigitte.
Prosecutor Lynn Bonnet-Matte announced Friday, in a tweet on Twitter, that the appellant’s detention had been extended.
A source close to the investigation said that the man’s condition “allows him to be detained” after undergoing a psychological examination.
According to the French Public Prosecutor, the motives of the attacker, who spent the night in police custody and may remain so for up to 48 hours, are still vague at this stage, “without a clear terrorist motive.”
“The ongoing investigation will determine the motive,” said Attorney General Lynne Bonnet-Mattis Thursday, adding that she “cannot rule out unwarranted action at this point.”
And the suspect, Abdel-Masih M. He finally divorced his wife when he was in his early thirties and previously lived for ten years in Sweden, where he obtained refugee status in April, according to security sources and his ex-wife told AFP.
“He called me about four months ago. He was living in a church,” said his ex-wife, who asked not to be named, adding that he had left Sweden because he could not obtain the country’s citizenship.
He was the parent of a three-year-old in legal status when he arrived in France a few months ago. In a new asylum application submitted to France in November 2022, he classified himself as a “Christian from Syria,” according to a police source. And he was wearing a cross when he was arrested.
According to Darmanan, the French authorities informed him last Sunday, June 4, that he could not obtain asylum in France because he had obtained it in Sweden. When asked about the possible connection between this refusal and the attack, he referred to a “disturbing coincidence”.
In Annecy, a small altar with candles, white roses and messages was set up on Thursday evening in a corner of the stadium where the attack took place.
