[Beirut Daily Star] A Muslim convert arrested on suspicion of stabbing a French soldier in a Paris suburb was motivated by religion and had shown some signs of radicalisation, French authorities said on Wednesday.The attack took place on May 25, three days after attackers chanting Islamist slogans killed a British soldier in London.
France has been on a security alert since January, when its troops began fighting al Qaeda-linked Islamists in Mali.
Prosecutor Francois Molins said authorities were treating the Paris attack as a terrorist act.
The suspect had been seen on a surveillance camera saying a Muslim prayer minutes before the assault on a soldier on patrol in the La Defense business district of Paris, he said.
"The nature of the incident, the fact it took place three days after London, and the prayer just before the act lead us to believe he acted on the basis of religious ideology and that his desire was to attack a representative of the state," Molins told a news conference.
"It seems clear the intent was to kill."
The soldier, who was attacked from behind with a knife, was released from hospital on Monday.
The suspect, identified by police as Alexandre Dhaussy, was arrested in a Paris suburb on Wednesday after being identified through fingerprints.
His age was originally given as 22 but authorities later clarified that he would reach that age on May 30.
Molins said the suspect was known to police for crimes such as theft and possession of firearms and that he converted to Islam as an adult. No details of his ethnicity were given.