Commenting on the case of the Portuguese citizen injured in the attack in the French city of Annecy on Friday, the president of the republic said the large number of Portuguese in France makes it “clear” that Portuguese citizens could be among them.
“The largest Portuguese community abroad is in France. It is clear that when there are problems that expose those who work on the street, they catch them in the middle,” he said in Peso da Régua.
The head of state said he was aware of the matter during the flight between South Africa and Portugal, which this year celebrates Portugal, Camões and Portuguese Communities Day.
“Precisely because he wanted to come between the attacker and a victim, he ended up being hit by the police and the attacker (…) We already have more or less information about him, but more information is still being collected,” he added up to it. .
The head of state welcomed Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the hospital where the Portuguese is hospitalized and stressed that the French president “knows what he owes to the Portuguese in France”.
“Macron went to visit him in the hospital because he knows what he owes the Portuguese in France. He owed it a long time ago, because we went to fight for France in World War I. Slaughtered. The French know that part of their independence belongs to Portugal,” he stressed.
In a released note, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday that the Portuguese citizen was seriously injured, but is now out of danger.
“During the tragic event, a Portuguese national, who was trying to prevent the attacker from fleeing the police, was seriously injured and is now out of danger,” reads the note, adding that it is “by right of courage and gallantry, a word of deep gratitude”.
On Thursday, an assailant with a knife injured six people – including four young children – in a park in the French Alps town of Annecy and was arrested after the attack, the French interior ministry said.
The attack provoked an avalanche of reactions in the political world, with right-wing and far-right parliamentarians highlighting the origins and status of the attacker, a 31-year-old Syrian refugee.
The motives of the attacker have not yet been clarified and the attack has no “apparent terrorist motive”, according to the French prosecutor’s office.
The attacker, Abdelmasih H., is in police custody and will undergo a psychiatric evaluation today.
In some videos circulating the internet, the attacker can be heard screaming “in the name of Jesus Christ” as he carries out the attack.
The attacker was carrying a crucifix and among his belongings was a prayer book. He declared himself a Christian when he applied for asylum.
Ten years ago he obtained refugee status in Sweden, where he married and had a child with a woman he divorced last year.
He has been in France since the end of 2022, where he has applied for asylum, but has no fixed address.
The answer to the asylum application, which was negative, reached him last Sunday, a few days before the attack in Annecy Park, as the French authorities emphasized.
Source: DN
