		<div class="wpcnt">
			<div class="wpa">
				<span class="wpa-about">Advertisements</span>
				<div class="u top_amp">
							<amp-ad width="300" height="265"
		 type="pubmine"
		 data-siteid="111265417"
		 data-section="1">
		</amp-ad>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div><p>French officials have completed a post-mortem examination to determine whether a suspected Islamic extremist was drunk or high on drugs when he took a soldier hostage in Paris and was shot dead by her fellow patrolmen.</p>
<p>Suspect Ziyed Ben Belgacem stopped at a bar early on Saturday, about four hours before he first fired bird shot at traffic police.</p>
<p>About 90 minutes later he attacked the military patrol at Orly Airport, causing panic and the shutdown of the French capital&#8217;s second-biggest airport.</p>
<p>A subsequent police search of his flat found cocaine, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said.</p>
<p>Blood samples taken during Sunday&#8217;s post-mortem examination were to be screened for drugs and alcohol, the prosecutors&#8217; office said.</p>
<p>In an interview on Sunday with French radio Europe 1, a man identified as the suspect&#8217;s father said Belgacem was not a practising Muslim and drank alcohol.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;My son was never a terrorist. He never attended prayer. He drank. But under the effects of alcohol and cannabis, this is where one ends up,&#8221;</i> said the father. Europe 1 did not give his name.</p>
<p>The Paris prosecutor&#8217;s office, which is in charge of the probe, said Belgacem&#8217;s father was released from police custody overnight. His brother and a cousin also were released on Sunday.</p>
<p>In a news conference on Saturday, Mr Molins said Belgacem called his father and brother early that morning, minutes after he fired bird shot at a police traffic patrol, injuring an officer in the face, to say he had made a stupid mistake.</p>
<p><i>&#8220;He called me at seven, eight in the morning and said, &#8216;there you go, Papa&#8217;. He was extremely angry, even his mother couldn&#8217;t understand him,&#8221;</i> the man identified as the father said on Europe 1.</p>
<p>The 39-year-old Frenchman had a long criminal record, with multiple jail terms for drugs and robbery offenses.</p>
<p>Mr Molins said Belgacem was out on bail, banned from leaving France and obliged to report regularly to police, having been handed preliminary charges for robberies in 2016.</p>
<p>He was also flagged as having been radicalised during a spell in detention from 2011-2012, Mr Molins said.</p>
<p>His house was among scores searched in November 2015 in the immediate aftermath of suicide bomb-and-gun attacks that killed 130 people in Paris.</p>
<p>Yelling that he wanted to kill and die for Allah, Belgacem wrestled away the soldier&#8217;s assault rifle during the Saturday-morning airport attack but was shot and killed by her two colleagues before he could fire the weapon in Orly&#8217;s busy South Terminal.</p>
<p>According to soldiers, the attacker yelled: <i>&#8220;Put down your weapons! Put your hands on your head! I am here to die for Allah. Whatever happens, there will be deaths,&#8221;</i> Mr Molins added.</p>
<p>The attack forced both of the airport&#8217;s terminals to shut down and evacuate, sent passengers and workers fleeing in panic and trapped hundreds of others aboard flights that had just landed.</p>
<p>It was the violent climax of what authorities described as a 90-minute spree of destructive criminality across Paris by the suspect.</p>
			<div style="padding-bottom:15px;" class="wordads-tag" data-slot-type="belowpost">
				<div id="atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed2aee7e7b3">
					<script type="text/javascript">
						window.getAdSnippetCallback = function () {
							if ( false === ( window.isWatlV1 ?? false ) ) {
								// Use Aditude scripts.
								window.tudeMappings = window.tudeMappings || [];
								window.tudeMappings.push( {
									divId: 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68ed2aee7e7b3',
									format: 'belowpost',
								} );
							}
						}

						if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) {
							document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', window.getAdSnippetCallback );
						} else {
							window.getAdSnippetCallback();
						}
					</script>
				</div>
			</div>
Discover more from London Glossy Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
