Rescue in front of the former premises of "Charlie Hebdo", in Paris, after the knife attack of September 25, 2020. -

Alain JOCARD / AFP

"Anger" and regret.

Zaheer Hassan Mahmoud, a young Pakistani, who attacked two people with a chopper near the former

Charlie Hebdo

premises

in Paris in September 2020, explained to a judge that he acted out of "anger" and expressed regret, he learned. AFP Wednesday from a source close to the case.

“I saw a man and a woman laughing together.

I was angry because I thought they were laughing at me, ”said the young man, during a hearing on December 15 before the anti-terrorism investigating judge in charge of the case.

His words, reported by

Le Parisien

, were confirmed to AFP by a source familiar with the matter.

Compulsive viewing of radical imam sermons

“Then I didn't understand anything, I was angry, it was dark, I didn't know what I was doing.

I took my bag, I took out the knife, I came back to them and I attacked them without knowing where I was hitting, ”he added in the Urdu language.

" I had no choice.

I haven't been able to calm down, I'm not for terrorism or terrorizing people, ”he said.

In France since 2018, the 26-year-old suspect claimed to have discovered on the Internet the cartoons of the prophet published by

Charlie Hebdo

"seven or eight days" before his attack on September 25.

"Shocked", Zaheer Hassan Mahmoud then compulsively watches videos emanating in particular from radical Pakistani imams.

"I said to myself: 'Why is France doing that? I'm in France, I must revolt, because otherwise no one will talk about it.'

"

"I did not come to kill"

He went on September 25, shortly before noon, rue Nicolas-Appert, in the 10th arrondissement, unaware that

Charlie Hebdo

had left its premises after the 2015 attack. In front of the door of the building, he was seriously injured with a chopping a man and a woman, journalists at the Premiers Lines agency.

"I saw the blood on my hands and I realized what I was doing," said the young Pakistani.

“I don't know how I could have attacked or hurt someone so much.

I had not come to kill ”, he assured during his hearing, weeping while looking at images of the attack and specifying that he wanted to“ ask forgiveness from the victims ”.

Arrested shortly after, he was indicted in particular for “attempted assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and then placed in pre-trial detention.

In this case, four Pakistanis between the ages of 17 and 21, who were in contact with him, were indicted and detained in December.

They are suspected of having been informed of his project and of having been able to encourage him to take action, according to another source close to the investigation.

Contacted, the two lawyers of Zaheer Hassan Mahmoud and the national anti-terrorism prosecution did not wish to speak.

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