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A man who injured two people in a knife attack outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris last week admitted he did not know the magazine had moved premises and that he wanted to set its offices on fire, the lead prosecutor in the case said Tuesday. In another admission, the man said he first lied to police when he told them he was 18 but later confessed to being 25 years old.
Prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard told a news conference the man carried three bottles of the flammable paint thinner White Spirit, which were to be used to set Charlie Hebdo’s former offices on fire in an act of revenge against the satirical newspaper, which republished cartoons picturing the Prophet Mohammed.
Ricard also said the man had operated under a false identity and that a photo of his passport on his phone showed that he was 25 years old, not 18 as he first said. The main suspect, born in Pakistan, confessed to being named Zaheer Hassan Mahmoud, instead of Hassan Ali, as he had first claimed.
French prosecutor Ricard added that the man will be presented to an anti-terrorist judge later on Tuesday.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS, AFP)