The custody of the French pensioner suspected of having killed three Kurds on Friday in Paris because he was “racist” was lifted on Saturday December 24 for health reasons, after a day of demonstrations in tribute to the victims, punctuated by violence.
“The doctor who examined the defendant this day at the end of the afternoon declared that the state of health of the person concerned was not compatible with the measure of police custody”communicated the Paris prosecutor’s office at the end of the day.
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“The respondent was taken to the psychiatric infirmary of the police headquarters. The police custody measure has therefore been lifted pending his presentation before an investigating judge when his state of health allows it.added the prosecution, which announced a new point in the situation on Sunday.
A “racist motive”
The 69-year-old suspect, a retired train driver of French nationality, fired several shots on Friday outside a Kurdish cultural center, located in a busy shopping district popular with the Kurdish community in central Paris.
Three people, two men and a woman, were killed and three other men injured, including one seriously, according to the latest report.
Controlled by several people before the intervention of the police, the man, who had already committed violence with a weapon in the past, indicated during his arrest that he acted because he was “racist”a source familiar with the matter told AFP.
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“The racist motive of the facts” has been “added” to the investigation opened for assassinations, attempted assassinations, violence with a weapon, and violations of the legislation on weapons, said Saturday the prosecution.
Next to the suspect, was discovered ” briefcase “ containing “two or three loaded magazines, a box of 45 caliber cartridges with at least 25 cartridges inside”, according to the source familiar with the matter. The weapon used is a “1911 Colt 45” of the american army “worn-looking”.
“Political Assassinations”
The woman killed, Emine Kara, was a leader of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in France, according to the Kurdish Democratic Council in France (CDK-F). She applied for political asylum “rejected by the French authorities”specified Friday in front of the press the spokesman of the movement, Agit Polat.
The two deceased men are Abdulrahman Kizil, “an ordinary Kurdish citizen”and Mir Perwer, a Kurdish artist recognized as a political refugee and “prosecuted in Turkey for his art”, according to the CDK-F. A police source confirmed to AFP the identities of Emine Kara and Abdulrahman Kizil.
A tribute to the victims, bringing together several thousand people in Paris, was the scene of violence in the early afternoon, noted AFP journalists. Eleven people were arrested, 31 members of the police were slightly injured as well as a demonstrator, said the prefect of police of Paris, Laurent Nuñez, on BFMTV.
At least four cars were overturned, including at least one set on fire, and garbage cans burned. A few dozen demonstrators threw projectiles at the security forces who responded with tear gas. “Long live the resistance of the Kurdish people”cried several of them.
In Marseille, 1,500 people, according to the police headquarters, marched. The demonstration ended in incidents, with at least two police cars set on fire, AFP noted. The track of a terrorist attack has been ruled out at this stage of the investigations, arousing the incomprehension and anger of the CDK-F.
“The fact that our associations are targeted is of a terrorist and political nature”said Agit Polat after his meeting with the police chief. “There is no doubt for us that these are political assassinations”.
Criminal record
The suspect, who frequented a shooting range, “wanted to attack strangers” and “obviously acted alone”Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin estimated on Friday. “It is not certain that the killer who wanted to assassinate these people […] did it specifically for the Kurds”he pointed out. “There is nothing at this stage to accredit any affiliation of this man to an extremist ideological movement”had for her part indicated the Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
The alleged shooter has been indicted since December 2021 for premeditated and racist violence with weapons, and degradation for acts committed on December 8, 2021. He is suspected of having stabbed migrants on a camp in Paris and to have slashed their tents. After a year in pre-trial detention, he was released on December 12, as required by French law, and placed under judicial supervision, according to the prosecutor.
He was also sentenced in 2017 to a six-month suspended prison sentence for prohibited possession of weapons and, last June, to twelve months in prison for violence with weapons committed in 2016 against burglars. The morning of the facts, “He didn’t say anything when he left […] He’s crazy. He is crazy “the father of the 90-year-old suspect told AFP, describing him as “silent” and “withdrawn”.
