New Zealand knife attacker ‘brainwashed’ by radical neighbours, mother says
- Ahamed Adil Mohamed Samsudeen, who was shot dead by police after stabbing seven people, had been on a terror watch list and was under surveillance
- New Zealand PM Jacinda Ardern said authorities had tried for years to deport him after it emerged his refugee status was fraudulently obtained
Ismail Fareeda spoke to a local TV channel about her son as the Sri Lankan government promised to work with New Zealand authorities to investigate Friday’s attack.
Ahamed Adil Mohamed Samsudeen, who was shot dead by police after stabbing seven people, had been on a terror watch list and was under surveillance. New Zealand authorities said he had been inspired by Islamic State.
Samsudeen’s mother accused neighbours she said were from Syria and Iraq of radicalising her son in an interview with the Hiru TV network from her home in Kattankudy, 330km east of Colombo.
She said Samsudeen was injured in a fall in 2016 and that the neighbours, whom she did not name, seized the opportunity to influence him, adding they “were the only people who helped him as he recovered”.
“Those neighbours from Syria and Iraq are the ones who brainwashed him,” she said, adding her son had started posting radical views on social media after meeting the neighbours.
“We knew there was a change in him. The change came after he left the country” and settled in New Zealand in 2011, she said.