Paris, Sep 29 (Sputnik) The suspect in last week’s knife attack, which took place near the former headquarters of the controversial French magazine Charlie Hebdo, is not 18 but 25 years old and he was not previously known to the special services, Jean-Francois Ricard, the head of France’s National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office, said on Tuesday.
It was previously reported that the suspect was a 2002-born Pakistani national named “Ali H,” who pleaded guilty to the Friday attack in Paris that left two people injured.
“The suspect was not known to the special services,” Ricard told reporters, adding that the 25 year old had never been convicted.
The prosecutor noted that the man had left Pakistan in March 2018.
“Having crossed Iran, Turkey and Italy, he arrived in France in August 2018. After arriving in France, the attacker provided false information about himself, as a result he was let in as an ‘unaccompanied minor’,” Ricard said.
The Charlie Hebdo magazine moved from its original premises, where the incident on Friday took place, after the January 2015 terror attack that left 12 people dead. Five more people died in two other terror incidents in France in the days following the ambush on the magazine’s office.
Charlie Hebdo republished the cartoons depicting the Islamic prophet Muhammad at the start of September as a trial into the 2015 terror attacks began. Al-Qaeda (terrorist group, banned in Russia) has threatened the magazine with a new attack following the recent reissue of the cartoons.