OUESLATIA, Tunisia (AP) – Desperate and drifting, Anis Amri took the path trodden by countless other North African teenagers: an illegal boat journey to Europe in hopes of a better life. He fell into crime instead – and is now suspect No. 1 in the deadly Berlin truck rampage claimed by the Islamic State group.
In his impoverished Tunisian hometown, Amri’s stunned family doesn’t know whether to defend him or disown him. One brother urged Amri to turn himself in to police.
“I want the truth to be revealed about my son. If he is the perpetrator of the attack, let him assume his responsibilities and I’ll renounce him before God. If he didn’t do anything, I want my son’s rights to be restored,” his mother, Nour El Houda Hassani, told The Associated Press on Thursday.
Distraught neighbors are surprised that Amri is suspected of such a heinous act. Yet the town is all too familiar with the threat of radicalism: Several of its sons, recruited by radical preachers, have died fighting in Syria and Libya.
His mother said she saw no sign that Amri had radicalized. In recent phone conversations, she said, he played Tunisian music and “asked about ordinary family news, and showed us meals he was preparing.”