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Man Who Killed 2 in France Had Been Sentenced for Terrorist Recruitment Man Who Killed 2 in France Had Been Sentenced for Terrorist Recruitment
(about 3 hours later)
PARIS — A man who fatally stabbed a police captain and his companion on Monday, in an attack claimed by the Islamic State, had been sentenced to prison in 2013 for membership in a group that was planning terrorist activities, French officials said on Tuesday. But the man was released almost immediately after his trial, for reasons that remain unclear. PARIS — A 25-year-old Frenchman who fatally stabbed a police officer and his companion at their home in a suburb of Paris on Monday, an attack quickly claimed by the Islamic State, was detained from 2011 to 2013 for involvement in a terrorist network that aspired to be active in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the authorities said on Tuesday.
On Monday evening, the man, Larossi Abballa, 25, attacked the police captain outside his home in Magnanville, a village about 35 miles from Paris. He then entered the house and killed the officer’s companion, who also worked for the French Interior Ministry, in the presence of the couple’s 3-year-old son. Around midnight, elite police forces stormed the house, killing Mr. Abballa and rescuing the child, according to the Interior Ministry. At a news conference, the Paris prosecutor, François Molins, offered new details about the brutal killings and an ensuing standoff that lasted nearly four hours, ending when the police stormed the house, mortally wounding the assailant.
Mr. Abballa posted photographs and a video of the killings on his Facebook account, according to David Thomson, a French journalist who specializes in covering jihadists. Mr. Thomson posted screenshots from the video on his Twitter account. Mr. Abballa’s Facebook page has now been taken down, and it was not clear if the video had been taken during or after the attacks. The killings shook France, which has been on high alert since two major terrorist attacks last year and is struggling with the security challenges posed by the European Championship soccer tournament. They occurred just one day after a rampage at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., by a gunman who had sworn allegiance to the Islamic State, left 49 people dead. And they raised new concerns about radicalization, as the assailant in France, identified as Larossi Abballa, was a French citizen who had been convicted and sentenced for terrorism-related activities.
President François Hollande of France, speaking at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris on Tuesday morning, said it was “indisputably a terrorist incident.” The assault began between 8 and 8:20 p.m. on Monday, when Mr. Abballa fatally stabbed a police officer outside his home in Magnanville, a village about 35 miles west of Paris, according to Mr. Molins said. The officer, 42, worked in Les Mureaux, a town where Mr. Abballa had lived.
Mr. Abballa was one of eight men convicted in Paris in 2013 of aiding a group that had been intending to commit terrorist acts and that had planned to go to Pakistan for training. Mr. Abballa then entered the house and held hostage the officer’s companion, a 36-year-old woman who worked at a police station in the nearby small city of Mantes-la-Jolie, and the couple’s 3-year-old son, before Mr. Abballa fatally stabbed her.
He was sentenced to three years in prison, but six months of that sentence was suspended, and his time was then further reduced for two years he had already spent in jail, a common practice in France. A neighbor summoned the authorities, who included members of an elite police unit. According to Mr. Molins, Mr. Abballa told the police that he was a Muslim observing Ramadan; a supporter of the Islamic State and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi; and that he was following an injunction by Mr. Baghdadi to “kill the infidels at home with their families.”
He was then released immediately after the trial, although he was under surveillance for two years, French law enforcement officials said. Mr. Abballa then broke off communications with the police. At some point during his time in the house, he turned his attention to social media. At 8:52 p.m., Mr. Molins said, Mr. Abballa posted a 12-minute video to more than 100 contacts, claiming responsibility for the attacks. He also posted two messages on Twitter from an account he opened last Wednesday.
A statement issued in Arabic by the news agency Amaq, which is linked to the Islamic State, said: “Islamic State fighter kills deputy chief of the police station in the city of Les Mureaux and his wife with blade weapons,” according to a translation provided by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist websites. Members of the elite police unit, known as RAID, stormed the home around midnight, fatally wounding Mr. Abballa and rescuing the child, who Mr. Molins said was traumatized but physically unharmed.
(The town of Les Mureaux is about 10 miles east of Magnanville; both are part of the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France region, which includes Paris.) Inside the home, investigators found a list of possible targets — including rappers, journalists, police officials and other public figures — along with three phones, and several knives, including one with blood on it. In a parked car nearby, investigators found a Quran; a djellaba, a long robe commonly worn in North Africa; and two religious texts.
The attack in Magnanville came amid jitters over the European Championship soccer tournament, also known as Euro 2016, which has been accompanied by multiple official warnings of possible terrorist attacks in France. Magnanville, where the victims lived, and Les Mureaux and Mantes-la-Jolie, where the victims worked, are all part of the Yvelines administrative department in the Île-de-France region, which includes Paris. Mr. Abballa was born in Meulan-en-Yvelines, also in that department.
It also occurred a day after a gunman who had declared his allegiance to the Islamic State slaughtered 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Fla., the worst mass shooting in United States history. Mr. Abballa was one of eight men convicted in Paris in 2013 of aiding a group that intended to commit terrorist acts and that had planned to go to Pakistan for training.
The Magnanville attack has already prompted calls in France for more stringent handling of those convicted of terrorism-related activities. He was given a three-year sentence on Sept. 30, 2013, including a six-month suspended sentence. His sentence was further reduced, a common practice in France, by the fact that he had been in detention since May 14, 2011.
On early morning broadcasts on Tuesday, some members of Parliament called for all people suspected of potential terrorist leanings to be placed in detention. Although Mr. Abballa was released immediately after his trial, he was under surveillance for an additional two years and two months, until Nov. 30, 2015, Mr. Molins said.
However, France is already stretched to the limit, both in prison capacity and in the numbers of suspects it can keep tabs on. The police and intelligence agencies are said to be working constantly to keep up with numerous would-be jihadists. “At the trial, Abballa seemed like someone who was not dangerous but was rather stupid,” said Hervé Denis, a lawyer who represented Zohab Ifzar, one of the other defendants.
The antiterrorism directorate of the judicial police and of the internal security department of the Interior Ministry have detained 100 people this year because of suspicions that they have links to terrorism, Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, said early Tuesday. He added that the terrorism threat in France was “high.” Mr. Abballa had been unemployed at the time of his arrest, Mr. Denis said.
In testimony before the National Defense and Armed Forces Commission of the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, on May 10, Patrick Calvar, the head of domestic intelligence, said that about 2,000 French citizens or residents were of concern to the security forces. The police officer killed on Monday had nothing to do with the investigation that resulted in Mr. Abballa’s imprisonment, and Mr. Abballa never carried out his plan to go to Pakistan, although he had wanted to, Mr. Denis said.
“He appeared to be the perfect soldier,” Mr. Denis said — someone who would do whatever was needed to help the effort — and he was “very determined.”
Mr. Abballa was one target of a counterterrorism inquiry that Mr. Molins’s office began on Feb. 11, which focused on a conspiracy to commit terrorism.
As part of that inquiry, investigators have gathered intelligence from telephone intercepts and various geocoding technologies, but that intelligence did not indicate that Mr. Abballa was on the verge of violence.
Three men in Mr. Abballa’s circle — ages 27, 29 and 44 — have been arrested and held for questioning.
The attack in Magnanville has prompted calls in France for more stringent handling of those convicted of terrorism-related activities.
On early-morning broadcasts on Tuesday, some members of Parliament called for all people suspected of terrorist leanings to be placed in detention.
However, France is already stretched to the limit, both in prison capacity and in the numbers of suspects it can keep track of. The police and intelligence agencies are said to be working constantly to keep up with numerous would-be jihadists.
The antiterrorism directorate of the judicial police and of the internal security department of the Interior Ministry have detained 100 people this year on suspicions of links to terrorism, Bernard Cazeneuve, the interior minister, said early Tuesday. He added that the terrorism threat in France was “high.”
In testimony before members of the French Parliament on May 10, Patrick Calvar, the head of domestic intelligence, said that about 2,000 French citizens or residents were of concern to the security forces.
He testified that at least 645 French citizens or residents of France were in Syria, and that about 400 of those were participating in military operations.He testified that at least 645 French citizens or residents of France were in Syria, and that about 400 of those were participating in military operations.
An additional 201 French citizens or residents are in transit, either traveling to Syria or returning to France from that country or from Iraq, and 173 are presumed dead, Mr. Calvar said, adding that the number of dead was probably higher. An additional 201 French citizens or residents are in transit, either traveling to Syria or returning to France from Syria or from Iraq, and 173 are presumed dead, Mr. Calvar said, adding that the number of dead was probably higher.
In addition, 244 French citizens have returned to France from Syria or Iraq, and the French intelligence services say they have identified an additional 818 people who they believe want to join extremists.In addition, 244 French citizens have returned to France from Syria or Iraq, and the French intelligence services say they have identified an additional 818 people who they believe want to join extremists.
The French authorities have repeatedly said that it is impossible to monitor all of them round the clock.The French authorities have repeatedly said that it is impossible to monitor all of them round the clock.
Mr. Abballa did not seem to be the most dangerous jihadist at his trial, but he was one of the most determined, said Hervé Denis, a lawyer who represented Zohab Ifzar, one of the eight men who were accused and convicted in the case.
Mr. Abballa was arrested on May 14, 2011, and spent two years in prison before his trial in 2013. He lived in Les Mureaux but was born in Meulan-en-Yvelines, a nearby town. Mr. Abballa was a French citizen and had been unemployed at the time of his arrest, Mr. Denis said.
The police captain killed on Monday had nothing to do with the investigation that resulted in Mr. Abballa’s going to jail, and Mr. Abballa never carried out his plan to go to Pakistan, although he had wanted to, Mr. Denis said. “At the trial, Abballa seemed like someone who was not dangerous but was rather stupid,” Mr. Denis added.
“He appeared to be the perfect soldier,” Mr. Denis said — someone who would do whatever was needed to help the effort — and he was “very determined.”
Ramadan, the Muslim holy month that is dedicated to fasting and prayer, has historically been a time when Al Qaeda, and recently the Islamic State, have escalated attacks. In his annual pre-Ramadan speech, the Islamic State spokesman, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani — who had not issued a statement in approximately seven months — re-emerged to call on the group’s followers to carry out assaults in Europe and America.
“The smallest action you do in the heart of their land is dearer to us than the largest action by us,” Mr. Adnani declared in the speech, which was uploaded on May 21 to Telegram, a messenger service, and to Twitter.
In France, much of the public focus this summer has been on avoiding a repeat of anything like the Islamic State attacks that killed 130 people in and near Paris on Nov. 13.
But lone-wolf attacks such as those encouraged by the Islamic State are perhaps hardest to prevent because they are so difficult to detect. (President Obama expressed alarm on Monday about the phenomenon of “homegrown extremism.”)
In June 2015, an employee at a small trucking company beheaded his boss and tried to set off an explosion at an American-owned chemical and gas factory near Lyon, France. The man, Yassine Salhi, appears to have had a friend who had gone to Syria to join the Islamic State, and Mr. Salhi sent him pictures of the beheading.
Mr. Salhi killed himself in prison in December while awaiting trial.
The beheading, like the stabbing on Monday evening, took place during Ramadan.