The murderous attack on Friday 23 April against a police officer at the Rambouillet police station in Yvelines put the terrorist threat back on the top of the political agenda on Saturday, with a crisis meeting in Matignon and Emmanuel's visit. Macron to the family of the victim.

Emmanuel Macron moved, Saturday, April 24, to Yvelines to visit the family of the victim, a 49-year-old woman.

The police officer, unarmed, was stabbed twice in the entrance to the Rambouillet police station by a 36-year-old Tunisian, then shot dead by a police officer.

The president went to the bakery of the victim's husband, to give his support to a family "very upset and very dignified", announced the Elysee.

The victim was the mother of two daughters aged 13 and 18.

"We will not give up on the fight against Islamist terrorism," Emmanuel Macron tweeted on Friday.

She was a police officer.

Stéphanie was killed in her police station in Rambouillet, on the already damaged lands of Yvelines.

The Nation is at the side of his family, his colleagues and the police.

In the fight against Islamist terrorism, we will not give up.

- Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 23, 2021

Four people in custody

In parallel, a meeting gathered for about two hours, Saturday afternoon, the services and ministers concerned around Prime Minister Jean Castex, who had cut short his visit to Occitania.

On the investigation side, a fourth person was taken into police custody at midday on Saturday, according to a judicial source, and his home searched.

This man would be a member of the assailant's family, according to a source familiar with the matter. 

The hearings of three people, placed in police custody on Friday evening, continued on Saturday.

This is the father of the murderer and two people who hosted him, one recently in Thiais, in Val-de-Marne, and the other on his arrival in France in 2009, said a close source. folder.

According to another source close to the investigation, the two people interviewed with the father form a couple who would have resided the assailant "at least administratively" in Val-de-Marne.

Their homes had been searched on Friday.

The attacker's phone contained "nasheeds", Muslim religious chants, now frequently used for jihadist propaganda, the source said. 

Arrived in France in an irregular situation, this delivery driver had held a residence permit valid for one year since December, according to the national anti-terrorism prosecution (Pnat), which took up the investigation.

The man would have carried out a "location", accrediting the premeditation, before attacking the victim, according to the antiterrorist prosecutor Jean-François Ricard.

Witnesses also reported that he shouted "Allah Akbar", according to a source close to the investigation.

Investigators from the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) and the General Directorate of Internal Security (DGSI) are working to specify his background, whether people helped or encouraged him in his project as well as his possible contacts. tied online with members of the jihadist sphere.

The man is from Msaken, a commercial town near the seaside resort of Sousse, on the east coast of Tunisia, where his family still resides in a modest house.

He would have at least one sister and two brothers, including a twin.

He had recently come to Tunisia for two weeks.

A cousin in her thirties assured AFP that he was being followed by a psychiatrist in France because he was suffering from depression. 

A tribute Monday to Rambouillet

The next few days will be those of tributes to the victim, administrative agent of the secretariat at the police station, for 28 years "in Rambouillet", according to a police source.

A tribute will be paid Monday at 5:30 p.m. to the administrative officer in front of the town hall, the town hall said on Twitter.

A "sober" ceremony, a "moment of contemplation" to "show our support to his family, his colleagues and the police," the mayor, Véronique Matillon told AFP.

Madame Véronique MATILLON, Mayor of RAMBOUILLET, and her Municipal Council, will pay tribute on Monday April 26 at 5.30 p.m. to the police officer murdered in the performance of her duties


The tribute will be held on the forecourt of the Town Hall


More info➡https: //t.co/gCVG1LBO8C pic.twitter.com/WMZAAOCtyT

- Rambouillet Town Hall (@ Rambouillet_78) April 24, 2021

This tragedy comes as the Yvelines police keep in mind the murder of a couple of police officers, stabbed in 2016 in their house in Magnanville, by a man claiming to be part of the Islamic State organization (EI ).

On October 16, 2020, the Yvelines had again been marked by the knife attack of Samuel Paty, professor of history and geography killed after showing in class caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad as part of a course on the freedom of expression.

Since 2015, a wave of jihadist attacks has left more than 260 dead in France.

Several of these attacks were carried out with knives and targeting the police, in accordance with the recurring slogans of the EI group.

With AFP

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