European ministers are to gather in Paris for security talks over the weekend following last week’s “targeted and premeditated” attack on a high-speed train that was foiled by passengers, it was announced yesterday.
The meeting “will ... look at very concrete proposals,” French Minister of the Interior Bernard Cazeneuve said, just hours after French prosecutors charged 25-year-old Moroccan Ayoub El Khazzani over the attack.
El Khazzani boarded a high-speed train in Brussels on Friday last week armed with a Kalashnikov rifle and 270 rounds of ammunition, as well as a Luger pistol, a bottle of gasoline and a box-cutter.
Photo: AP
He walked out of a toilet cubicle with the weapons, but was stopped by several people, including two off-duty US servicemen, their friend and a 62-year-old British consultant, who have since been given France’s top honour, the Legion d’Honneur.
Saturday’s meeting is to see ministers from Germany, Britain, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Switzerland, as well as France come together.
Khazzani was questioned for four days before being taken barefoot, handcuffed and with a mask over his eyes to a Paris courthouse to be charged on Tuesday.
His lawyer, Mani Ayadi, slammed Khazzani’s treatment as “outrageous and disgraceful,” saying he should not have been left barefoot, but prosecutors said the suspect refused to wear shoes.
Khazzani claims that he was homeless and had stumbled upon the weapons stash in a Brussels park, which he intended to use to rob first-class passengers in the Amsterdam-Paris train.
However, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said the claim was “barely credible,” giving a raft of evidence for why Khazzani was being probed for “attempted murder” as part of a “targeted and premeditated” terrorist plot.
Khazzani bought his first-class ticket on the day of the attack at Midi train station in Brussels, paying 149 euros (US$170) in cash — discrediting his claim that he was penniless. The ticket seller asked if he wanted to travel earlier, on a less-crowded train, but he refused.
Khazzani also traveled to Turkey and back in May and June, creating suspicion he may have spent time in Syria.
In other developments, the city of Sacramento, California, said it is planning a parade for the three Americans hailed as heros in the train drama, who grew up in the area.
Anthony Sadler, 23, returned to California on Tuesday, walking off a commercial plane at Sacramento International Airport accompanied by his parents. The family landed in Sacramento after taking a private jet to Portland, Oregon, after Columbia Sportswear chief executive Timothy Boyle had made the jet available to fly the young men’s mothers to France over the weekend.
Sadler’s friends, US Air Force airman Spencer Stone, 23, and Oregon National Guardsman Alek Skarlatos, 22, were still at a US military base in Germany, where Stone is undergoing treatment for injuries he received during the incident.
Additional reporting by AP
BACK IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD: The planned transit by the ‘Baden-Wuerttemberg’ and the ‘Frankfurt am Main’ would be the German Navy’s first passage since 2002 Two German warships are set to pass through the Taiwan Strait in the middle of this month, becoming the first German naval vessels to do so in 22 years, Der Spiegel reported on Saturday. Reuters last month reported that the warships, the frigate Baden-Wuerttemberg and the replenishment ship Frankfurt am Main, were awaiting orders from Berlin to sail the Strait, prompting a rebuke to Germany from Beijing. Der Spiegel cited unspecified sources as saying Beijing would not be formally notified of the German ships’ passage to emphasize that Berlin views the trip as normal. The German Federal Ministry of Defense declined to comment. While
‘REGRETTABLE’: TPP lawmaker Vivian Huang said that ‘we will continue to support Chairman Ko and defend his innocence’ as he was transferred to a detention facility The Taipei District Court yesterday ruled that Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) be detained and held incommunicado over alleged corruption dating to his time as mayor of Taipei. The ruling reversed a decision by the court on Monday morning that Ko be released without bail. After prosecutors on Wednesday appealed the Monday decision, the High Court said that Ko had potentially been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Ko did not speak to reporters upon his arrival at the district court at about 9:10am yesterday to attend a procedural
‘UPHOLDING PEACE’: Taiwan’s foreign minister thanked the US Congress for using a ‘creative and effective way’ to deter Chinese military aggression toward the nation The US House of Representatives on Monday passed the Taiwan Conflict Deterrence Act, aimed at deterring Chinese aggression toward Taiwan by threatening to publish information about Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials’ “illicit” financial assets if Beijing were to attack. The act would also “restrict financial services for certain immediate family of such officials,” the text of the legislation says. The bill was introduced in January last year by US representatives French Hill and Brad Sherman. After remarks from several members, it passed unanimously. “If China chooses to attack the free people of Taiwan, [the bill] requires the Treasury secretary to publish the illicit
The Executive Yuan yesterday warned against traveling to or doing business in China after reports that Beijing is recruiting Taiwanese to help conceal the use of forced Uighur labor. The government is aware that Taiwan-based influencers and businesses are being asked to make pro-Beijing content and offered incentives to invest in the region, Executive Yuan acting spokeswoman Julia Hsieh (謝子涵) told a news conference. Taiwanese are urged to be aware of the potential personal and reputational harm by visiting or operating businesses in China, Hsieh said, adding that agencies are fully apprised of the situation. A national security official said that former Mainland
RSS