While in police custody, the mother of the suspect in the Paris knife attack, which occurred last Saturday, asked for “forgiveness from France” and to disown her son.
“I ask France for forgiveness.” During her police custody which followed the knife attack for which her son is suspected of being the assailant on Saturday December 2, the mother of the 26-year-old young man continued to apologize, relays The Parisian. Also imploring “forgiveness to the family of this German” with whom she “mourns” his death, she also said: “I no longer have a son”, preferring to speak of the “individual” who committed the irreparable rather than his “son”.
Now aged 62, the woman who was sent to France to continue her studies when the Shah of Iran was overthrown in 1979 during the Islamic Revolution, subsequently embarked on a career as a store employee at the Carrefour de Villejuif, despite his master’s degree in educational sciences. During her custody, she spoke at length about her son’s journey, her family’s position on religion and her “love” for France. “The sky has fallen on their heads. This family is honest and respectful people,” a source close to the case told the capital’s daily newspaper. At Parisian, which evokes a “model of assimilation”, this same source does not hesitate to speak of a “secular and benevolent family with an atheist father”. The son’s conversion to Islam following the death of his maternal grandmother in 2015 would not have been well received by those close to him at all.
Diagnosed with schizophrenia in prison
For her part, the mother would have confided to investigators that from his childhood Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab seemed a little apart. Despite his good grades at school and the fact that he didn’t cause any trouble, the boy was shy and withdrawn. But when he reached adolescence, the young man’s parents noticed notable changes. Talking to himself and laughing for no reason, he could look blank at times. If his mother had suggested he go see a psychologist, the young man would have refused, arguing that he was “not crazy”.
On the subject of religion, the parents wanted “their son to have an intellectual approach to religion”, says a close relative of the family whose The Parisian echoes. His conversion to Islam at the age of 18 would have gone down badly in the family. The young man would then have mainly done his religious education behind his computer, in his room. His arrest in July 2016, followed by a five-year prison sentence, one of which was suspended, would have shocked the family. As a reminder, Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab was spotted at the time by the police while he was chatting online with jihadists.
The parents claim that it was during his time in prison that their son was diagnosed with schizophrenia. When he was released in 2020, the young man followed his drug treatment and swore he no longer had a religion. A few months later, he was a Muslim again, but still fulfilled his legal obligations. At the end of her medical follow-up, her mother claims to have taken over like “a police officer”. Last October, seeing that her son was not doing well after the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, she even went to the police station to warn about her son’s condition. To date, no charges have been brought against the parents of Armand Rajabpour-Miyandoab who were released from police custody on Monday.