Father of Nice attacker insists ‘he had no links to religion’ but had previously suffered mental problems
Investigators compiling a picture of Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel as man with a record of petty crime, but no known links to terrorist groups
The Tunisian-born driver who killed 84 people after slamming his truck into a crowd of revellers in the French resort of Nice had suffered from depression but had nothing to do with religion, according to his father.
“From 2002 to 2004, he had problems that caused a nervous breakdown. He would become angry and he shouted ... he would break anything he saw in front of him,” Mohamed Mondher Lahouaiej-Bouhlel said outside his home in the city of Msaken in eastern Tunisia.
He said the family took Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel to a doctor who prescribed medication to counter his depression. Lahouaiej-Bouhlel described his son as “always alone, always depressed” and not wanting to talk.
The father said the family in Tunisia had almost no contact with his son after he left for France, but he could not say when exactly this was.
“When he left for France we heard nothing more from him,” he insisted.
