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Tunisian terrorist, 21, had turned to Muslim prayer from drink and drugs before murdering three people in Nice, his family claim  – as France is warned to prepare for more ‘terrible attacks’

  • Brahim Aoussaoui, 21, the Nice terror attacker, arrived in Europe via Lampedusa where he landed on Sep. 20
  • Having been smuggled there, he was placed in coronavirus quarantine – first on the island, and then on a ship
  • The quarantine ship sailed from Lamepdusa to Bari, where the migrants were disembarked on October 8 
  • Aoussaoui was handed a deportation order, but freed  by Italian officials – who are under pressure to explain
  • From there he travelled by train to France, skirting around border checks that could have seen him stopped
  • It is thought he then spent several weeks in Paris, before catching a train to Nice on the morning of the attack
  • Once in Nice, he made his way to the Notre Dame church where he launched his attack, killing three people

 Henry Martin – Daily Mail Oct 31, 2020

Police described the scene inside the Notre-Dame basilica in Nice city centre as a “vision of horror”. Click to enlarge

The Tunisian terrorist who stabbed three people to death in Nice had turned to a hermit-like life of prayer following a lifestyle of drink and drugs before the atrocity, his family say – as France’s Interior Minister warns of more ‘terrible attacks’ to come.

Brahim al-Aouissaoui, 21, beheaded a 60-year-old woman, slit the throat of sexton Vincent Loques, 55, and stabbed mother-of-three Simone Barreto Silva, 44, to death at Nice Notre-Dame Basilica on Thursday morning.

He was shot 14 times, tasered, and remains in hospital in critical condition.

Speaking from Sfax, Tunisia, his mother said Aoussaoui had left school and worked as a motorcycle mechanic, at first spending his wages on alcohol and drugs.

She told the Telegraph: ‘I used to tell him, ”we are poor and you’re wasting money?” He would reply ”if God wills it, he will guide me to the right path, it’s my business”.’

But over the last two and a half years he became increasingly religious and isolated.

‘He prayed [and] went from home to work and back, not mixing with others or leaving the house,’ his mother said.

His brother Yassine said that Aoussaoui worked harvesting olives in Italy after leaving Tunisia, then went on to France.

On the day before the attack, October 28, he called the family to say he had just arrived in the country and would be sleeping in front of the church – sending a photograph of himself at the cathedral that would be the location of the attack.

Brahim Aoussaoui’s route to Nice. Click to enlarge

‘He didn’t tell me anything,’ said Yassine. He added that he did not understand how he could carry out the Nice attack so soon after arriving in France.

The country’s Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said that the attacker ‘wasn’t on any of our security watchlists, either French or European,’ and added that France was ‘at war with Islamist extremism… an enemy that is both internal and external’.

He told RTL radio: ‘We need to understand that there have been and there will be other events such as these terrible attacks.’

Mr Darmanin said after a top-level security meeting that 3,500 reserves in France’s gendarme force would be called up to give local authorities a total of 7,000 members of the security forces at their disposal to ensure security.

Some 4,000 additional French troops will also be mobilised from next week to raise the numbers taking part in the ongoing Sentinelle security operation to 7,000, the army confirmed.

Aoussaoui left his family’s impoverished village of Bou Hajla in Tunisia on or around September 15, according to the country’s judiciary spokesman, having paid smugglers to take him to Europe.

Brahim Aoussaoui. Click to enlarge

Five days later he landed with 28 other migrants on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa, where records show he was placed into a coronavirus quarantine centre.

On September 25, he was transferred from the centre to a quarantine ship, the Rhapsody, which set sail for the port city of Bari, on Italy’s eastern coast.

The ship moored offshore while the migrants waited out the quarantine, with disembarkation beginning on October 8. Aoussaoui was among those disembarked, with his fingerprints, name, and date of birth noted.

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