The President of the United States confirmed that the suspect, identified by the FBI as British national Malik Faisal Akram, 44, had “insisted on obtaining the release of someone who has been in prison for ten years”, and had “made anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments”.
US authorities on Sunday launched an “international scope” investigation into the Briton who died the day before after holding several people hostage for ten hours in a Texas synagogue, an “act of terrorism” denounced by Joe Biden and the United Kingdom . The President of the United States confirmed that the suspect, identified by the FBI as British national Malik Faisal Akram, 44, had “insisted on obtaining the release of someone who has been in prison for ten years”, and had “made anti-Semitic and anti-Israel comments”. According to several American media, he demanded the release of Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist sentenced in 2010 by a federal court in New York to 86 years in prison for having tried to shoot American soldiers while she was detained in Afghanistan.
“It was an act of terrorism,” hammered Joe Biden. The United Kingdom also condemned, through its Foreign Minister Liz Truss, “this act of terrorism and anti-Semitism”, claiming to be “alongside the United States”. The American president explained that the hostage taker had bought his weapons “on the street”. And he revealed that he “apparently did not have any bombs” contrary to what he had claimed during the events. “At this stage, there is no indication of the involvement of any other person,” the US federal police said in a statement.
Hostages safe and sound
The four hostages were all released unharmed on Saturday evening. Among them was a respected local rabbi, Charlie Cytron-Walker, who said that “the gunman had become increasingly aggressive and threatening in the last hour of the hostage crisis”. It ended with a police intervention, a loud bang and gunshots in the synagogue of the Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, a town of about 23,000 inhabitants about 40 km from Dallas. And by the death of the suspect — it is not known at this stage whether he committed suicide or was shot dead by law enforcement.
North West England Counter Terrorism Police confirmed in a statement that Malik Faisal Akram is from the Blackburn area of Lancashire. On the Blackburn Muslim Community Facebook page, a man identifying as his brother said he “suffered from mental health issues” and was “shot and killed”. “There was nothing we could have said to him or done that would have convinced him to surrender,” said the man who says he was “until the early morning in liaison with Faisal, the negotiators, the FBI” .
“We will investigate the hostage taker and his contacts,” in an “international scope” investigation, Dallas FBI Special Agent Matt DeSarno said. Adding to the spectacularity of the hostage-taking, a live broadcast of the religious service on Facebook was in progress when the kidnapper burst in. “There is something wrong with America,” said this man, according to this broadcast followed by AFP before its interruption. “I’m going to die,” he also said, repeatedly asking an unidentified caller for “his sister” to be on the phone.
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I will die
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Aafia Siddiqui is currently being held in a prison-hospital in Fort Worth, near Dallas. She was the first woman to be suspected by the United States of links with Al-Qaeda, the Islamist network responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001 in New York and against the Pentagon, which had earned her the nickname “Lady Al -Qaeda”. She “is absolutely not involved” in the hostage-taking, however, assured CNN in a statement to her lawyer. She confirmed that the man was not her client’s brother.
Experts pointed out that the word used by the man in Arabic was figurative and meant “sister” in the Islamic faith. President Biden has pledged to “confront anti-Semitism”. Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also felt that it was necessary “to continue to fight it all over the world”. In Colleyville, in this very quiet residential area, emotion prevailed on Sunday. “It’s one of the safest cities in North Texas,” said Austin Newell, 33, owner of the North Texas Kings baseball club, whose field is across from the synagogue. “It’s amazing.” For Bob Fitzgerald, 91, who goes to mass at the neighborhood Baptist church, “it had to end like this”, “this guy did not deserve to live”.
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