The Egyptian man who carried out an attack with a machete at the Louvre museum on Friday has a clean record, sources within Egypt’s Interior Ministry told Al-Masry Al-Youm on Saturday.
The attacker, Abdallah Reda al-Hamahemy, is thought to live in the United Arab Emirates and believed to have entered France legally on a flight from Dubai on January 26.
In a black t-shirt bearing a skull design and armed with two 16-inch machetes, Hamahemy lunged at four patrolling French soldiers while shouting "Allahu Akbar" ("God is greatest"), Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told a press conference.
One solider was struck on the head and another fell to the ground outside the famous Paris museum after the assailant attacked. The second soldier managed to open fire and hit the machete-wielder in the stomach.
Interior Ministry sources said security services are to make a detailed report on the suspect.
The sources added that investigations into the suspect’s political inclinations are ongoing in Egypt, also inquiries into his work in the UAE over the past two years.
He could be affiliated with any group without the knowledge of his family, the sources said.
The sources added that Hamahemy is not on a terrorist list; some Interior Ministry agencies are working on the case including the National Security Agency, Public Security, Criminal Investigations, and Airport Security .
The father of the suspect, who is a former police general, said the French authorities accused his son of terrorism crimes to hide their crime of shooting him, and that he would sue them.
He told Al-Masry Al-Youm that his son did not carry a weapon at all, adding that he entered the Louvre through a metal detector gate.
French police said that Abdullah Hamahemy was no longer in a critical condition but was still unable to communicate and could not yet be questioned.
