Suspect looked at jihadist video before France train attack

French investigators had just hours left Tuesday to decide whether to charge a suspect in a high-speed train attack that was foiled by passengers, as it emerged he watched a jihadist video just before boarding.

Ayoub El Khazzani, a Moroccan national, boarded a high-speed train in Brussels Friday armed with a Kalashnikov assault rifle and 270 rounds of ammunition, as well as a Luger pistol, a bottle of petrol and a box-cutter, said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins. Molins said the suspect’s explanations became increasingly incoherent until he stopped speaking altogether to investigators.

He was well prepared for what was viewed as a premeditated attack, the prosecutor said.

According to his lawyer, he told police that he had found all of the weapons along with a mobile phone in an abandoned suitcase in a park near the Gare du Midi station.

Mr Khazzani said he knew he would never see his son again.

The judicial source said Khazzani was also charged with weapons offences related to terrorism, and “participation in a terrorist association with a view to organising one or several damaging crimes”.

Spanish intelligence services say he went to Syria from France, but the suspect has reportedly denied going to the conflict-ridden country where the Islamic State group controls swathes of territory.

According to French law, authorities must file preliminary charges against the suspect by Tuesday night or seek a special extension to his temporary custody.

Spanish newspaper El Mundo spoke to Mr Mohammed el Khazzani, father of Ayoub el Khazzani, at his home in Algeciras, southern Spain.

Khazzani was on the radar of European intelligence agencies, but gaps remain in his backstory.

He lived in Spain for seven years until 2014, where he came to the attention of authorities for making hardline comments defending jihad, attending a radical mosque in the port of Algeciras and being involved in drug trafficking.

He was initially thought to be carrying two phones, but the source said he was actually only in possession of one mobile phone, which had been activated on the morning of the attack.

The trio were awarded the country’s Legion d’Honneur medal on Monday by French President Francois Hollande in a ceremony at the Elysee palace in the presence of Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and the U.S. ambassador to Paris Jane Hartley.

“The aggression that took place on Friday… which could have degenerated into a monstrous carnage…is fresh proof that we must prepare for other attacks and therefore protect ourselves”.

He has had a chance since Sunday to talk with the others – Anthony Sadler, Spencer Stone and Alek Skarlatos, three American friends on vacation in Europe – about those critical events.

“I’m not an expert in the area but I do think we need to figure out how to harness the power of the citizens”, he said.

“A few days later he decided to get on a train that some other homeless people told him would be full of wealthy people traveling from Amsterdam to Paris and he hoped to feed himself by armed robbery”, David said.