A Tunisian extremist is on trial accused of killing 3 people in a French church

A Tunisian man went on trial in France on Monday on terrorism charges over the killing of three people in a basilica in the French Riviera city of Nice in 2020, one of multiple attacks that year linked to Islamic extremism.

The assailant, who was shot and seriously wounded by police, says he remembers nothing. Brahim Aouissaoui, now 25, was the only person in the dock as the trial opened, with no accomplices or sponsors identified.

The attack was the third in less than two months that French authorities attributed to Islamic extremists, and prompted the government to raise its security alert to the maximum level.

It came while France was holding a trial over the 2015 attacks on the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo, which published caricatures of Islam’s prophet. France at the time faced anger from many Muslims around the world for defending the cartoons and for its policies against Islamic radicalism.

France remains on high alert today, notably for domestic extremist threats stoked on online platforms.

As Monday’s proceedings began in Paris, Aouissaoui spoke through a translator. He is facing charges of terrorist murder and attempted terrorist murder, and faces up to a life sentence if convicted.

On Oct. 29, 2020, Aouissaoui allegedly killed worshippers Nadine Vincent, 60, and Simone Barreto, a 44-year-old French-Brazilian woman, and church worker Vincent Loquès, 55.

Police officers fired at the assailant as he lunged at them, shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is great) and wielding a knife. Seriously wounded, Aouissaoui underwent two operations and was placed in intensive care.

He has repeatedly told investigators that he can’t remember anything and has nothing to say. He has claimed that his parents are dead, when in fact they are not and said he didn’t recognize himself on CCTV footage of him entering the basilica.

Expert psychiatrists and a neurologist determined that he does not suffer total memory loss. "The systemic and opportunistic nature of the allegedly lost memories was part of a defense system and a refusal to cooperate with the judicial authorities,″ they said, according to investigative documents seen by The Associated Press.

They described him as someone who experienced a period of addiction, then a period of ‘’rigor and asceticism'' and then passed into a period of ″radical commitment and then terrorist action.″

With behavioural problems in detention, Aouissaoui has been in and out of five prisons.

Samia Maktouf, the lawyer representing the church worker’s family, described the suspect as a “a radicalized, indoctrinated Salafist, close to the theses of al-Qaida, which congratulated him on his action.″

Aouissaoui is believed to have left Tunisia on the night of Sept. 18-19, 2020, by boat, according to the investigative documents. He then went to the Italian island of Lampedusa, one of the main European gateways for migrants, before being placed in quarantine.

On Oct. 9, he arrived in Bari in southern Italy, where he was notified of an obligation to leave the country. But he returned to Sicily and worked to pay for a train ticket to Rome and then Nice.

According to investigators who examined his postings on social networks, Aouissaoui was aware of the threats made against France by media close to al-Qaida following the opening of the trial of the Charlie Hebdo attack. He described France as “a country of miscreants and dogs,″ investigators said.

He repeatedly scouted out the basilica ahead of the attack, and investigators said it had been premeditated for several weeks.