The author of the stabbing of 4 children in France, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee, is imprisoned

The man who last Thursday stabbed four children and two adults in a park in the city of Annecy, a Syrian who had refugee status in Sweden and had been homeless in France for several months, has been charged today, but not for terrorist offences, and jailed.

The Annecy prosecutor, Lise Bonnet, who announced her indictment at a press conference, specified that there is no fear for the lives of any of the six victims of the attack, but both the four children (who are between three years and 22 months) and one of the adults remain hospitalized.

The magistrates have charged him with the crimes of rebellion with a weapon and, above all, with attempted murder, a crime for which he could be sentenced to life imprisonment. A psychiatrist who had examined him during his arrest had declared him fit for questioning, and found no delusional elements in him.

The prosecutor pointed out that the attacker -identified as Abdelmasih H.-, who is the only perpetrator, has refused to answer police interrogations during the 48 hours that he has been under arrest at the police station in this city in the French Alps before being presented to the investigating judges.

No terrorist motivations

Bonnet insisted that in the investigations that have been carried out so far “no terrorist motivation appears.” According to the witnesses to the assault who have been questioned by the police, it appears that during the stabbing he alluded to his wife, his daughter and Jesus Christ.

When he was arrested by five police officers, just a few minutes after the attack on the children and just 300 meters from the scene of the events in the same park, which is located on the shores of Lake Annecy, among his possessions was found, in addition to the dagger that he used for the attack, a crucifix, two Christian imagesa Swedish driving license and 440 euros in cash.

He is 31 years old and Both his wife and his three-year-old daughter live in Swedenwhere he obtained refugee status in 2013. In May 2022, he left Sweden and visited Italy and Switzerland before arriving in France, where he has been living without a fixed address since October last year.

Upon arrival, he applied for refugee status in France, but the Administration responded with a refusal on the 4th precisely because he already had that status recognized in Sweden.

A statute that allowed move around the Schengen areaalthough not to settle permanently in a country other than the one that had given him refugee status.

This question has fueled a controversy in France created by some leaders of the right and of the extreme right, who have taken the opportunity to denounce the immigration policy, in their opinion too lax, and to criticize the European rules, in particular those that allow the free movement of refugees.

According to the French press, Abdelmasih H. was mobilized by his country’s Army at the outbreak of the civil war in 2011 and decided to desert.

First went through Türkiyewhere he met what would later become his wife (also Syrian, later nationalized Swedish) with whom he went to Sweden, where his son was born.

The attacker’s mother, who lives in the United States, has stated in the French press that her son suffered a “serious depression” due to successive rejections who had received their applications for Swedish citizenship.

The victims out of danger

Two of the children stabbed (one born in February 2021 and one born in August 2020) are French. In addition, there is also a little British girl born in March 2020 who was in Annecy with her family on her vacation, as well as another Dutch woman who, after the attack, was rushed to an emergency hospital.

As for the two adults, one has already been discharged and the second, who in addition to the stab wounds of the attacker received an involuntary shot by the police, is still hospitalized but his condition has allowed him to give a statement.