Killer spurned father who tried to save him
THE father of one of the Bataclan concert hall killers had begged his son to renounce Islamic State.
Mohamed Amimour travelled to Syria in June last year to try to bring his radicalised son Samir home, but the young man rejected his help.
Instead, the 28yearold former bus driver sneaked back to Paris, and was one of three terrorists who murdered more than 80 concertgoers on Friday night.
Mr Amimour said his son, born to Algerian and Palestinian parents in Paris, had called him before crossing into Syria two years ago after initially claiming he was going on holiday to the south of France.
Mr Amimour, 67, travelled to a town near Aleppo in Syria, but his son, known as Samy, would barely look him the eye and the father of three returned to France alone.
While he was in the region, Mr Amimour was shown ‘horrible images’ by fighters and said he felt ‘sickened’. The killer told his father: ‘Don’t be selfish. You want to see me become a lawyer or I don’t know what. That’s your dream. By being here, I’m doing what I like.’
In Drancy, a rundown suburb of Paris, residents said Amimour had been a ‘smiley’ little boy, but grew up to become a fanatic who left for the mosque at 5am. One revealed that he had researched online how to make a bomb.
Friends on the estate told the Daily Mail that Amimour had been groomed by radicals who visited the tower blocks. His sister, Maya, is a selfieloving 20something and his mother worked at the town hall.
Referring to the Bataclan killings, one neighbour said: ‘We knew he had gone off the rails a bit but nowhere near this badly.’ Locals realised Amimour was linked to the bloodbath when police stormed the apartment he once shared with his mother and two sisters.
Amimour worked as a bus driver on the 143 route near his home. Transport company RATP yesterday confirmed the terrorist had worked for them for 15 months but left in October 2012.
Three people close to Amimour – whose nom de guerre was Abu Hajia – were last night being held by police.