Born: 1977;

Place of Birth: Algeria;

Gender: Male;

Nationality: Algerian;

General Info:
Farid Ikken is a follower of the Islamic State terrorist group who attacked a police officer outside Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris.

Ikken struck one in the head with a hammer but the officer, who ducked, was only slightly hurt and opened fire on him, injuring Ikken in the chest.

He charged at officers on patrol outside the cathedral on June 6, 2017, shouting “this is for Syria.”

Ikken is an Algerian national and former journalist who spent several years in Sweden before moving to France in 2014 for his studies.

In Sweden, he called himself Massip Farid Ikken and claimed to be a Berber from Algeria. During his time in Sweden, Ikken had several stints with both established media, such as Swedish Radio or Uppsala Nya Tidning and up-and-coming “norm-critical” media, such as Fria Tidningen, Ikken’s supervisor at Université Panthéon-Assas, professor Arnaud Mercier, said in an interview with French TV channel LCI.

In 2009, he was awarded the EU Commission’s journalist prize against discrimination for his article about illegal immigrants in Folket i Bild.

According to the Swedish trade newspaper Journalisten, Ikken’s article was about asylum seekers who were denied medical care, as well as health care staff providing care to the unentitled.

He told the court he wanted to carry out an act of “symbolic violence” to avenge France’s participation in airstrikes against the Islamic State in the Syrian city of Raqqa and Iraqi city of Mosul.

Ikken was sentenced to 28 years in jail, and he was also barred from French territory for life.