Arrested: A policeman leads the suspect in last week’s attack on a soldier in Paris’s La Defense district into custody this morning. (Daily Mail)
French police arrested a 22 convert to Islam in connection with the stabbing of a French soldier on Saturday.
The New York Times reported:
French police on Wednesday arrested a 22-year-old man in connection with the stabbing on Saturday of a French soldier in a Paris suburb, with officials describing the suspect as a fairly recent convert to Islam.
French Interior Minister Manuel Valls said in a statement that the suspect was arrested Wednesday morning in the Yvelines region just west of Paris, following the stabbing of Pvt. Cédric Cordiez in the neck from behind with a short-bladed knife. The attack took place in the shopping mall and underground transportation hub of La Défense, west of Paris.
Officials said at the time that the attack seemed an echo of the killing and stabbing to death of a British soldier on a London street last week.
The French suspect was known to investigators, Mr. Valls said, but he urged caution and said: “I cannot talk about radical Islam.” He said investigators wanted to know more about the suspect’s “motivation, background and family environment.”
The police said he was identified thanks to video footage from the crime and traces of his DNA found on items left at the scene in a plastic bag, including a knife and a bottle.
