Encomium
Thursday, July 14, 2016, went down in France’s history as a terrible day, as the celebration of Bastille Day turned to a national mourning day when Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a Tunisian terrorist living in France drove a truck into a crowd gathered at the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, killing 84 people and injuring 303.
Here are 14 quick facts that explain his life and death…
- Born 3 January 1985 in Msaken, Tunisia, Age 31.
- Married to Hajer Khalfallah, 31, with three children; they were separated and in the course of divorce.
- Worked as a driver and acquired a truck permit to help his financial difficulties.
- Lived in the Riviera city, Nice, about 930 kilometers (580 miles) from Paris and was regularly in trouble with the law.
- Bouhlel was not on a terrorist watch list, had dual French-Tunisian citizenship and was part of the Bastille Celebration
- Described as a “weird loner” who “became depressed” after his wife left him
- A psychiatrist diagnosed him as suffering from “the beginnings of psychosis” in 2004
- Until April when he started visiting a mosque, he wasn’t a Muslim.
- His marriage with his wife, Khalfallah, was abusive before they split.
- Investigators examining Bouhlel’s phone records found evidence that he was in contact with known Islamic radicals.
- He sent £84,000 through his friends to his family members in their hometown of Msaken, Tunisia, days before the attack.
- Bouhlel was likely bisexual as his phone was full of messages, videos and photographs, including ones of men and women he had recently slept with.
- ISIS had issued a statement Saturday saying that Bouhlel was one of the “soldiers of Islam” and he “carried out the operation in response to calls to target nationals of states that are part of the coalition fighting Islamic State.”
- Bouhlel was shot to death by police around Promenade des Anglais.
- Seyifunmi Adebote for encomium.ng
