police officers patrol in front of the Louvre, on February 3, 2017, after an attack by a machete against the military. – C. ENA/AP/SIPA
  • Published on
  • updated the

investigators have attempted Sunday to hear the author of the attack with the machete against the military at the musée du Louvre on Friday in Paris, but he refused to speak to the police coming to interrogate him on his hospital bed.

Still not formally identified

The investigation is ongoing to formally establish the identity of the assailant, which could be Abdallah El-Hamahmy, an Egyptian 29-year-old arrived in France a week ago with a tourist visa.

After a preliminary hearing Sunday morning that was cut short, investigators have attempted again to interrogate the suspect but the latter “still refuses to speak,” said a justice source in the early evening. Treated at the european hospital Georges-Pompidou, serious injury to the abdomen after being struck by the firing response of a military, his condition has markedly improved on Saturday, making the hearings “possible” in the eyes of the medical profession. Other hearings will be scheduled over the course of his police custody, which began Saturday at 18.45, and of which the duration can go up to 96 hours, as the law requires in cases of terrorism.

on Friday at around 9: 50 am, in the shopping mall of the Carrousel du Louvre, the attacker, a machete in each hand, went on a patrol of military shouting “‘Allah Akbar’”. A first soldier was slightly wounded in the scalp, a second attempted to repel the attacker without the use of his weapon, before firing four times, wounding him seriously.

Several mysteries remained Sunday : the man in hospital is actually El-Hamahmy and, if so, what are the motivations of this young man apparently without stories, and a graduate in law and commercial framework in a business in the united arab Emirates (uae) ?

No mark of allegiance to a group, the jihadist found

This resident in the USA is legally entered France on 26 January by a flight from Dubai, before staying in a weekly rental close to the Champs-Elysées. The trip was prepared long before: according to a source close to the investigation, the apartment at the price of 1.700 euros had been booked online in June, well before the tourist visa lodged end of October, under the name of Hamahmy.

If that name also appears on the driving licence of the offender be delivered to Emirates in 2011, this identity must still be confirmed by DNA testing. To do this, according to the same source, the general Directorate of internal security (ISB) is compared with the specialized services the egyptians. Contacts will be taken with the WATER and the Turkey, the passport in the name of Hamahmy containing two visas for this country in 2015 and 2016.

in addition, no mark of allegiance to a group jihadist was found during the search in the apartment he rented online for 1.700 euros per week, but investigators are seeking to talk about the Iphone and the tablet that they have entered.

tweets suspects

They also look at tweets posted in Arabic, a few minutes before the attack, on an account in the name of Abdullah El-Hamahmy and where it seems to lend its support to the group jihadist islamic State (EI), which continues to threaten the France of retaliation for his participation in the military coalition international in Iraq and Syria.

If the “terrorist nature” of the attack “is little doubt” for president François Hollande, the father of Abdallah El-Hamahmy, a high-ranking officer of the egyptian police in retirement, has expressed his disbelief,saying that his son had showed no signs of radicalisation.

He described a young commercial director of Sharjah, in the Uae, party “business trip” to Paris, and whose wife, pregnant, would have to be currently in Saudi Arabia with their son seven months ago. It has shown to be without any news from him since Friday.

key Words :