The terrorist vehicle ram attack that occurred this Wednesday, January 1 in the United States awakens the memory of previous events, in France, in China but also in Germany.
At the wheel of his vehicle, an individual drove into the crowd in a tourist area of New Orleans, in the United States, this Wednesday, January 1. At least ten people were killed and 30 injured in this attack which is painfully reminiscent of previous similar tragedies.
The attack of July 14, 2016 in Nice, 86 dead
While nearly 30,000 people gathered on the Nice seaside to watch the National Day fireworks, Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel, a thirty-year-old Tunisian living in Nice, rushed into the crowd aboard a truck.
No less than 86 people lost their lives in this attack during which several hundred others were injured. The attacker had finished his deadly course in front of the Palais de la Méditerranée and was shot dead by the police.
The jihadist motivations of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel were subsequently highlighted by the courts, without however being able to link him with any terrorist organization.
During the first trial for the Nice attack, a total of eight people were tried for complicity and sentenced to sentences of two to 18 years’ imprisonment. Only two had appealed: Mohamed Ghraieb, a 48-year-old Franco-Tunisian, and Chokri Chafroud, a 44-year-old Tunisian, sentenced at first instance to 18 years of criminal imprisonment (out of 20 years incurred) for terrorist conspiracy.
Their sentence was confirmed on appeal in June 2024, with a sentence of 18 years of criminal imprisonment, accompanied by a two-thirds security sentence, pronounced by the special assize court of Paris. The two accused appealed to the Court of Cassation.
The attack of November 11, 2024 in China, 35 dead
Driving an SUV, Fan Weiqiu, 62, deliberately drove into people exercising outside a sports complex in Zhuhai, China’s Guangdong province. The attack, the worst experienced by the country in ten years, left 35 dead.
The assailant, arrested shortly after the events, was sentenced to the death penalty in December. According to the court, he acted out of personal motives, linked to “a broken marriage” and “his dissatisfaction with the division of property after the divorce”.
China experienced another car-ramming attack just days after the attack in Zhuhai on November 19. Committed in front of a school in the center of the country, it did not cause any deaths but lightly injured 30 people, including 18 schoolchildren.
The assailant was sentenced to death, suspended for two years. This is a sentence whose execution is suspended for these two years, and which is often commuted to life imprisonment in the absence of new crimes or offenses.
The attack at the Magdeburg Christmas market in 2024, 5 dead
A 50-year-old Saudi doctor, living in Germany since 2006, mowed down the crowd at the Magdeburg Christmas market on December 20. At the wheel of a powerful BMW vehicle, he sped off at full speed and left five people dead and more than 200 injured.
Known for his radically hostile views on Islam after breaking with his religion and his country of origin, Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen had published numerous messages full of hatred and anger on social networks.
He was fined in 2013 for “disturbing public order” and “threats to commit crimes”. More recently Saudi Arabia requested his extradition, after repeatedly warning that he “could be dangerous”. The German police met him without noticing any “particular danger”.
According to German justice, Taleb Jawad al-Abdulmohsen appears to have acted to denounce the lack of support from the German asylum authorities for Saudi refugees who, like him, have broken with their country. According to the authorities, the fifty-year-old suffers from psychiatric disorders.
The murder of an anti-racist activist in Charlottesville in 2017
Coming to participate in a gathering of small radical far-right groups in Charlottesville, in the United States, James Fields knocked down a group of anti-racist counter-protesters. He then killed Heather Heyer, 32, and injured around thirty people.
The 22-year-old had several social media accounts where he expressed support for white supremacism and the Third Reich, advocating violence against the black and Jewish communities.
At the time, President Donald Trump was criticized for initially appearing reluctant to condemn extremist activists, saying there was “wrong on both sides.” Under pressure, he finally admitted to “racist violence”.
James Fields pleaded guilty to 29 counts of “hate crime” and was sentenced to life in prison for the first time in June 2019, then a second time in July, for the murder of Heather Heyer.
