French authorities said on Monday that the main suspect behind the deadly Nice church attack in October has been handed terror murder charges, The Associated Press reported.
The health of the suspect, Brahim Issaoui, had impeded authorities’ ability to question him. Issaoui was seriously wounded by police following the attack, and remained hospitalized in life-threatening condition for some time.
However, a statement on Monday said the Tunisian migrant was charged with “assassinations in connection with a terrorist enterprise” and “participation in a criminal terrorist association.”
Issaoui is suspected of stabbing three people to death at the Basilica of Notre-Dame de Nice, the southern French city’s biggest church.
The Nice attack was the third in France in a matter of several weeks. On October 16, teacher Samuel Paty was beheaded by a Chechen man in a suburb of Paris after showing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during a class on freedom of speech.
A month earlier, a 25-year-old man wounded two people in a meat cleaver attack in Paris. He was subsequently charged with "attempted murder with relation to a terrorist enterprise."
In recent years, France has been hit by a number of attacks claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS), the biggest one being the attack in November of 2015 in which 129 people were murdered.