A Frenchman who stabbed to dying a Muslim worshipper at a southern France mosque and filmed the sufferer’s ultimate moments has been arrested by the police in Italy, prosecutors mentioned Monday.
The killing of Aboubakar Cisse, a younger Malian, on Friday in a village in provincial France triggered shock, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to say there was no place for spiritual hate in French society and Prime Minister Francois Bayrou to denounce an “Islamophobic” crime.
The suspect, a French nationwide born in Lyon in 2004 and named solely as Olivier A., “surrendered himself to a police station in Pistoia” close to Florence in central Italy on Sunday, Abdelkrim Grini, the prosecutor of the southern metropolis of Ales, informed AFP.
He had been on the run for 3 days within the wake of the homicide.
“This may be very satisfying for me as a prosecutor, mentioned Grini, who’s answerable for the case.
“Faced with the effectiveness of the measures put in place, the suspect had no option but to hand himself in – and that is the best thing he could have done.”
On Friday, after initially praying alongside Cisse, a younger Malian in his 20s, the suspect stabbed the worshipper dozens of instances after which filmed him with a cell phone whereas shouting insults at Islam.
They had been alone within the mosque on the time and Cisse’s physique was solely found when worshippers started arriving later that morning for Friday prayers.
The assault within the village of La Grand-Combe within the Gard area was the most recent in a collection of lethal stabbings in France lately.
France is residence to the most important Muslim group within the European Union.
A European arrest warrant might be issued for the suspect’s switch throughout the border to France, the prosecutor mentioned, including that would take “a few days or a few weeks.”
More than 70 French cops had been mobilized since Friday to “locate and arrest” the perpetrator, thought-about “potentially extremely dangerous,” the prosecutor mentioned.
‘I did it’
“After boasting about his act, after practically claiming responsibility for it, he made comments that would suggest he intended to commit similar acts again,” Grini had mentioned Sunday.
In the video, the suspect made simply after committing his crime, he congratulated himself, saying “I did it” and insulting Allah.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau on Monday congratulated all these concerned after the suspect surrendered.
“The magistrates and investigators have shown great determination and professionalism, which has enabled them to achieve results in a very short space of time,” he mentioned on X.
The homicide has positioned Retailleau, a hardline right-winger with a troublesome stance on immigration, beneath stress.
While he met Grini in Ales on the weekend, he conspicuously didn’t go to the scene of the killing in La Grand-Combe.
The suspect, who’s from a Bosnian household and unemployed, lived in La Grande-Combe.
“He was someone who had remained under the radar of the justice system and the police, and who had never been in the news until these tragic events,” Grini had mentioned.
In La Grand-Combe, greater than 1,000 individuals gathered on Sunday for a silent march in reminiscence of the sufferer. They marched from the Khadidja Mosque, the place the stabbing occurred, to the city corridor.
Abdallah Zekri, rector of a Nimes mosque, denounced an Islamophobic local weather and mentioned he felt “feelings of anger and hatred towards those who committed this crime.”
Several hundred individuals additionally gathered in Paris on Sunday, together with left-wing firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, who accused Retailleau of cultivating an “Islamophobic climate.”
President Emmanuel Macron expressed “the nation’s support” to the sufferer’s household and “to our Muslim compatriots.”
“Racism and hatred based on religion will never have a place in France,” he mentioned on X on Sunday.
Retailleau has ordered police to tighten safety at mosques across the nation.
Source: www.dailysabah.com