The act of Mohamed Hichem M, the main suspect of the parcel bomb attack in Lyon, on Friday, May 24, was incomprehensible say his close friends. The 24-year-old Algerian is a computer science student. He was arrested Monday, May 27 without resistance. Several members of his family are being questioned by the police.
His best friend Islaam, 23 years old and resident of Oran in Algeria expressed his disbelief. “I’m in shock and I can not believe he’s responsible,” he said. “There may be an error. I even tried to call his family…” explained the young man in Paris. For the childhood friend of the suspect, there are still doubts: “Certainly, he was cycling and often sending videos of him strolling around, but, on the images released by the police, it is impossible to recognize him,” says the friend.
Islaam says he does not understand the motive that made his friend act in this way. “Hichem, he’s like my brother. He has never been violent, everyone loves him here. He is a Muslim, does prayer and Ramadan, but is not at all extremist. When discussing religion, we speak about the prophet or the verses of the Quran, but not about the Islamic State … Even if he had the skills to make a bomb, he would never hurt anyone.”
The arrest was followed by a second arrest by the police, namely that of a high school student, identified as the younger brother of the number one suspect. Finally, a fifth person is being heard in an open hearing by the investigators. It happens to be the suspect’s sister. The latter lived with his parents in Oullins, a suburb, where a search was conducted by a unit of the anti-terrorist brigade, supported by a demining service.
The main suspect along with three members of his family has so far been arrested. The Mayor of Lyon, Gérard Collomb said the suspect had been hitherto unknown to the police and the judiciary.
He was spotted not only through video surveillance images but also through his purchases on Amazon, including survival equipment and elements for the manufacture of a homemade bomb, French magazine L’Express reported.
The explosion resulted in 13 injuries, nine women including a 10-year-old child and four men. Eleven of them were hospitalized, some to be operated on in order to extract shards.
The parcel bomb was in a bag of kraft paper placed on the concrete block where the suspect had stopped by bicycle near the bakery. It contained screws, metal balls and batteries, as well as a printed circuit board, manipulated by a remote triggering device.
The 24-year-old Algerian, suspected of being the person seen by CCTV cameras dropping the parcel on a street in Lyon’s second arrondissement on Friday was arrested by police on Monday, around 10am.
He was arrested without resisting as he was getting off of a bus in the seventh arrondissement, reported FranceInfo. But he has since been shown to be “uncooperative with the investigators”. The Minister of the Interior, Christophe Castaner, said during a press briefing held on Monday: “The investigation is continuing.”
The authorities spent the weekend looking for the young Muslim. France’s police chief welcomed the arrest. “A suspect has just been arrested,” he confirmed on Twitter, hailing “the mobilization of the antiterrorist sub-directorate (SDAT), the judicial police of Lyon and the Directorate General of Homeland Security (DGSI), aided by the anti-terrorist unit of Paris.
One comment
Oh well, just a good honest psychopath then. Islam should be registered as a mental illness.”he was found to be suffering from Islam and was not responsible for his own action”!
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