The Moroccan suspect in a foiled attack on a high-speed train was hit Wednesday with terrorism charges after prosecutors argued he planned to unleash carnage among hundreds travelling from Belgium to France.
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The Paris prosecutor yesterday dismissed a claim by the gunman Khazzani, disarmed by passengers on a train between Amsterdam and Paris, that he had been planning a robbery, and opened an investigation into “attempted murder with terrorist intent”.
Molins said El-Khazzani notably watched the online video on his phone minutes before he walked through the Amsterdam-to-Paris train carrying an assault rifle and other weapons.
El-Khazzani boarded the train on Friday at a Brussels station.
Molins outlined a raft of evidence indicating why Khazzani was being probed for “attempted murder” as part of a “targeted and premeditated” terrorist plot. He said the suspect also carried a Luger pistol, a bottle filled with gasoline, and a box cutter.
Authorities said El Khazzani was recently in Hatay Province in southeastern Turkey, close to the Syrian border.
Khazzani also travelled to Turkey and back in May and June this year, seen as a possible sign that he went to war-torn Syria where the Islamic State group controls swathes of territory.
One goal investigators suspect a deliberate assault was that El-Khazzani, who claimed to be homeless and dwelling in a Brussels park, took a first-class ticket and refused to take an earlier practice although there have been seats obtainable.
The Independent says that, after delivering his story about finding a suitcase full of weapons under a random park bench and conceiving a plot to rob the train, Khazzani became “less and less lucid” and “eventually stopped speaking to investigators at all”.
She said that sort of heroic behavior should be rewarded after the 9/11 attacks.
The train incident has highlighted growing difficulties in protecting public spaces from individual attackers.
Prosecutors have now filed formal charges against him.
According to French President Francois Hollande, a Frenchman was the first to encounter the gunman as he left the toilet, alerting others in the area. Once Khazzani stepped into the compartment, two American servicemen tackled him after his weapon jammed. Skarlatos remained with Stone in Germany.
He said Khazzani had given “evasive” answers before invoking his right to silence on Monday. Landstuhl Regional Medical Middle spokesman Chuck Roberts stated Stone arrived on the facility in southern Germany on Monday and appeared in good spirits, smiling and shaking palms with leaders of the U.S. army hospital.
“Mark is one of the most compassionate people I’ve ever known”.
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“My position was, I’m not going to be the guy who dies sitting down”, Chris Norman told CNN’s “New Day”.
