In France as well as in Germany, he was repeatedly convicted of various crimes, even in Switzerland, he was in prison. The French security authorities classify him as a threat. Persistent on Wednesday held on suspicions that the 29-year-old Chérif Chekatt had sold to Germany.
The wanted is „dangerous“, warned the French police in the short message service Twitter. „Do not intervene on your own.“ Chekatt is therefore 1.80 meters tall and has a „normal stature“. The photo shows a young man with black eyes, thick eyebrows, black hair and a short beard.
Chekatts family is originally from Algeria. He was born in 1989 in Strasbourg. There he grew up with six siblings, as „Focus Online“, citing the District Court Singen reported. Accordingly, he went to school until the age of 16. Afterwards he was employed „at the municipality“, he had not completed an education. Since 2011 he is apparently unemployed.
According to the French Ministry of the Interior, Chekatt was sentenced for the first time at the age of 13. Since 2016, he has been led by the French anti-terror authorities as a threat. The intelligence services became aware of him during a period of imprisonment from 2013 to 2015 for violence, religious radicalization and his conversionist sentiment.
According to witnesses, the attacker in Strasbourg called „Allahu Akbar“. Therefore, and because of the choice of the Christmas market as a place for the attack, the anti-terrorism department of the Paris prosecutor’s office had the investigation itself, it was said by the French justice.
Despite his criminal record and radicalization, he has not been known to date for „terrorist-related offenses,“ French Interior Secretary Laurent Nuñez said. This warned with a view to a possible terrorist motive behind the Christmas market attack to caution – such a motive has not been confirmed, despite the investigation of the Paris counter-terrorism prosecutor. Nuñez also pointed out that Chekatt had tried to travel to Syria.
A neighbor of Chekatt in Strasbourg told AFP that he had been „not deeply in Islam“ arrested. Chekatt had been „unobtrusive,“ said the 22-year-old neighbor, who lives in the same Strassburger suburban settlement. Chekatt lives alone in a small apartment, his parents also lived in the neighborhood.
According to French investigators, Chekatt was supposed to be arrested on the morning of the crime for attempted killing in connection with an armed robbery in August. The police did not find him in his apartment. There, the officers found a grenade, ammunition and four knives.
