An “Islamist terrorist” who allegedly stabbed a man to death in France avoided deportation 10 times, the country’s interior minister said on Sunday.
The suspect launched a stabbing spree in the middle of a market in the eastern city of Mulhouse on Saturday, killing a 69-year-old man who tried to stop the attack. Two police officers were seriously injured, while three more were lightly wounded.
The suspect, identified as 37-year-old Algerian national Brahim A, allegedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” multiple times during the attack.
He had been placed on a terror prevention watchlist, was known to police for having psychological problems and was under an order to leave France after arriving illegally in 2014.
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Bruno Retailleau, France’s interior minister, accused Algeria of refusing to take the suspect back nearly a dozen times.
“Algeria refused him 10 times. Ten times, my services have contacted the Algerian consulate without it ever accepting someone who was born in Algeria,” Mr Retailleau said in an interview with French news channel TF1.
The suspect was arrested shortly after the Oct 7 attack in Israel and sentenced to six months in prison for condoning terrorism.
A personality assessment determined that he had a schizophrenic profile.
Following his release, the suspect was placed in an administrative detention centre while French authorities tried to deport him back to Algeria.
He had been living under house arrest previously, and was required to report to his local police station every day.
The suspect appeared at the Mulhouse police station, near the Swiss and German borders, on the day of the attack but failed to sign in.
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Emmanuel Macron was quick to label the attack an “Islamist terror attack” on Saturday evening.
“It is without any doubt an act of Islamist terrorism,” the French president told reporters on the sidelines of the annual French agricultural show.
The interior minister also linked the stabbing to immigration in France.
“Islamist terrorism has struck France again,” Mr Retailleau told reporters in Mulhouse. “It is also, I am not afraid to say it, the result of migratory disorders.”
The Mulhouse attack is the latest incident to escalate diplomatic tensions between France and Algeria regarding visas, expulsions and immigrants.
According to Mr Retailleau, France granted 250,000 visas to Algerians in 2024, but the North African country had accepted fewer than 3,000 illegal immigrants in return.
“The imbalance is glaring. In international law, reciprocity must apply,” he said, adding that he aims to “change gears” and establish a new balance of power.
In an allusion to France’s long colonial history with Algeria, Mr Retailleau added: “No country, whatever the history that may separate us, has the right to humiliate France.”
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Manon Aubry, deputy leader of the far-Left party France Unbowed, spoke out against Mr Retailleau’s “xenophobic obsessions”, which she said “always aim to raise the level of tension and target Algerians”.
“We are casting shame on [Mr Retailleau for] all Algerian nationals, all the Franco-Algerians in our country who will feel targeted once again even though they have absolutely nothing to do with this terrorist attack,” Ms Aubry added.
Last week, Algeria refused to accept a separate national who had been sentenced to six months in prison by a court in Haute-Savoie for theft, handling of stolen goods and carrying a knife.
On Feb 10, the Algerian national was escorted by two French police officers on a flight to Oran. Citing the lack of a consular pass, the man was sent back to France.
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