(AP) Ali Hassan was only 15 when he left Pakistan to be smuggled to Europe, following the path of his older brother and many other young men from his home country dreaming of a better life.
Nearly three years later, Hassan is today in a Paris jail after allegedly attacking and seriously wounding two people with a meat cleaver. Before the Sept. 25 attack, he proclaimed in a video he was seeking vengeance after the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo published caricatures of Islam’s Prophet Muhammad.
Little is known about Hassan’s time in France. There has been confusion over his age, but the Associated Press obtained his official identification documents in Pakistan that confirmed he is currently 18.
French authorities are investigating the Sept. 25 stabbings as an Islamic extremist attack.
