- The suspect is unemployed and hails from a Bosnian family.
- According to French authorities, the suspect turned himself in to Italian police.
- Political leaders in France have denounced the attack.
An individual has been detained in Italy on suspicion of fatally stabbing a young Malian man while the victim was praying inside a mosque in southern France, French officials reported on Monday.
Abdelkrim Grini, the public prosecutor from Ales in the Gard region, confirmed to BFM TV that the alleged assailant visited a police station near Florence at approximately 11-11:30 PM on the previous night.
“We were aware he had left France… It was only a matter of time before he was apprehended,” he stated.
Regarding the attack’s motive, Grini indicated: “An anti-Muslim motivation is the primary focus… However, there are also indications that suggest other motivations, perhaps a desire for notoriety as a serial killer.”
French politicians condemned the attack that was recorded and shared on Snapchat.
The suspect, an unemployed man from a Bosnian family, was known to reside in La Grande Combe, a small town north of Ales.
Grini noted, “He had previously gone unnoticed by law enforcement and had not been in the headlines until this tragic incident.”
In La Grande Combe, over 1,000 people gathered on Sunday for a silent march in memory of the victim, Aboubakar Cisse, who was in his twenties. The march proceeded from the Khadidja Mosque, the scene of the stabbing, to the town hall.
Later that day in Paris, several hundred individuals, including three-time presidential candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon, gathered to protest, accusing Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau of fostering an “Islamophobic environment.”
President Emmanuel Macron expressed on X, “Racism and hatred based on religion will never be accepted in France,” extending “the nation’s support” to the victim’s family and “to our Muslim compatriots.”
France, which prides itself on its secular principles known as “laicite,” is home to the largest Muslim population in Europe, exceeding 6 million individuals and making up about 10% of the total population.
