A Tunisian migrant charged with killing three people, including one beheading, during a church service in France in 2020 has confessed to the murders, reportedly showing no remorse.
Brahim Aouissaoui, 25, confessed to the Oct. 29, 2020, attack at Nice’s Notre Dame Basilica during his trial on Monday, reports the French outlet Le Monde. He claimed that his actions were a justified response to the killing of Muslims abroad.
“Every day, Muslims die. Every day you kill Muslims. These Muslims are people too. You don’t care, you have no empathy for them. All those who live in Muslim countries also have loved ones, families, children,” Aouissaoui was quoted as saying.
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Earlier in the trial, Aouissaoui claimed that he could not remember the attack, though medical examinations concluded that he had no brain damage from the injuries sustained during his arrest and that he had no evidence of impaired judgment, The Guardian reported. According to officials, there were “many indications that at the time he left Tunisia … the accused intended to carry out an attack in France.”
Prosecutors questioned Aouissaoui why he came to France, a country he allegedly called a “country of infidels and dogs.”
“I don’t remember that,” he replied, according to Le Monde. “I told you why I committed these acts, but I don’t remember how I did it.”
He reportedly admitted during trial that he beheaded 60-year-old worshipper Nadine Devillers “to scare people.”
The other victims included 55-year-old church sexton Vincent Loquès and 44-year-old Simone Barreto Silva. The attacker was identified shortly as then 21-year-old Aouissaoui, who police confronted and shot multiple times while he resisted arrest.
According to authorities, Aouissaoui traveled from Tunisia to Italy weeks in advance of the attack and then from Italy to France. He reportedly carried three knives when he entered the church, as well as a Quran in a backpack.
The following Sunday, churches across the European country had heavy security, while many French Muslims denounced the attack and attended mass in solidarity with the Christian population.
“These people have no spirit or reason and want to make another interpretation (of the Quran) that we firmly reject,” said Lahouary Siali, an imam in Toulouse, in a statement at the time.
“We have not mandated anyone, and given no power of attorney to anyone to speak on our behalf. In the name of what philosophy, what spirituality have you come to take the lives of innocent people?”
Aouissaoui’s trial was expected to run through Wednesday. Prosecutors are asking the judge for a life sentence without parole, a similar sentence handed to Salah Abdeslam in connection to the November 2015 Paris attacks that left around 130 dead, Le Monde reported.
