As the hours go by, we learn more about Abdalmasih, the alleged perpetrator of the stabbing of several children in a playground in the French city of Annecy.
The person responsible for the attack is a 31-year-old Syrian citizen who submitted his asylum application in France last November. The man entered France legally in 2022 and submitted his asylum application on November 28 at the French Office for the Protection of Refugees and Stateless Persons. However, in 2013 he already obtained refugee status in Sweden, where he resided after emigrating from his country of origin and before reaching French territory.
Abdalmasih was able to move freely throughout the Schengen area thanks to his refugee status granted to him in the Scandinavian country. There he married a Swedish woman, with whom he had a son three years ago. As she explained to the newspaper Le Parisien, he left the country when he did not obtain Swedish nationality and “did not know much more about him.”
After his arrest yesterday, the police agents found his Syrian identity card and were able to verify that it did not appear in the police files or the French intelligence services. As pointed out from France, there are no apparent terrorist motives.
Abdalmasih was wearing a cross and a prayer book at the time of the arrest, according to police sources. In his asylum application, moreover, he declared himself a “Christian from Syria.” Several witnesses stated that they had been seeing the alleged perpetrator go to the park every day for several weeks. He called attention to the fact that he always came alone, although he had not shown aggressive attitudes.
The attacker spent the night in police custody and is expected to undergo a psychiatric examination today, according to the French Interior Minister. In addition, the French authorities notified him on Sunday June 4 that he could not obtain asylum in France since he already had it in Sweden.
From France they point out that the suspect suffered from “serious depression”, as his mother admitted to AFP, who has lived in the United States for ten years. In her words, the Swedish authorities’ refusal to grant him citizenship “probably drove him crazy.”
The investigations are still open. The balance is four children and two seriously injured adults. According to reports from France, two of the children are in a serious situation. The country’s president, Emmanuel Macron, went to Annecy today to learn more about events that have shocked the entire country.
