French man kills Tunisian neighbour in suspected racist attack in Puget-sur-Argens
A French man killed a Tunisian neighbour in Puget-sur-Argens, southeastern France, on Saturday evening and wounded a Turkish man, the local prosecutor's office said on Sunday.
The suspect "shared two videos on his social media account containing racist and hateful content before and after his attack," the prosecutor said in a statement.
“Today I’m cleaning,” the suspect reportedly said in one of the videos.
On Monday, the anti-terrorism prosecutor's office announced that it had taken up the case.
Investigations are being conducted for murder and attempted murder, in connection with a terrorist enterprise, "committed on grounds of race, ethnicity, nation or religion", and for criminal terrorist conspiracy.
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This referral to the anti-terrorism prosecutor's office can be explained by "the scope that the suspect himself intended to give to his act [which] goes beyond the individual act committed, with a desire to disturb public order through terror," a source close to the case told AFP.
According to the newspaper Le Parisien, the suspect notably stated that he "pledged allegiance to the French flag" and called on the French to "shoot" people of foreign origin in one of his videos posted on Facebook.
According to a source, who spoke to AFP, the deceased man, in his 30s, was hit by five bullets.
The 53-year-old suspect, who is in police custody, is a sports shooter. Several weapons were found in his vehicle, "including an automatic pistol, a shotgun and a handgun," the prosecutor said.
On Sunday night, the SOS Racisme association denounced in a communique that "racism has struck again in our country.
“These crimes thrive in a poisoned climate: trivialisation of racist discourse, media complacency towards the far right and worrying institutional signals,” the statement read.
"The double crime that struck two men in Puget-sur-Argens is not a bolt from the blue. It is the result of meticulous work carried out by the racist camp, aimed at once again legitimising the expression of racism in words and deeds."
"Faced with this sinister development, it is urgent that political leaders and the media stop ignoring anti-racist discourse, when they are not working to marginalise it," the NGO’s president, Dominique Sopo, said, warning that France was “on the eve of a shift that, in reality, is already underway."
Rise in hate crimes
The case recalls the murder of Aboubakar Cisse, a 22-year-old Malian man stabbed to death while he was praying in a mosque in La Grand-Combe, in southern France, on 25 April.
The attacker inflicted 57 stab wounds on his victim while filming the scene and uttering Islamophobic remarks.
"I did it [...]. Your shitty Allah, your shitty Allah", declared the killer, Olivier Hadzovic, who was later indicted and imprisoned for "murder based on religion". The terrorist motivation requested by the victim's family and their lawyer was not retained.
After the murder, President Emmanuel Macron declared that "racism and religious hatred have no place in France," while Prime Minister Francois Bayrou called the attack an "unspeakable Islamophobic act".
Rallies were organised throughout the country to denounce Islamophobic violence and the perceived unequal treatment of hate crimes.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, known for his tough stance on migrants and what he calls the fight against "political Islam," was particularly criticised for failing to issue an immediate statement.
Retailleau also refused to recognise the Islamophobic nature of the attack, sparking a debate over the term itself, which he wrongly said was coined by the Muslim Brotherhood.
After the murder, Abdallah Zekri, vice president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM) and chairman of the Observatory Against Islamophobia, told Middle East Eye that the characterisation of the murder should be unequivocal.
"This is an Islamophobic crime, the worst of all those committed in France against our community," he told MEE.
"After the desecration of graves, vandalism of Muslim places of worship and businesses, insults and physical violence, they are now killing worshippers inside mosques," he added, in reference to numerous incidents that have targeted French mosques in recent years, including arson attacks and pig heads found at their doors.
According to the National Directorate of Territorial Intelligence, anti-Muslim acts have increased by 72 percent in the first trimester when compared to the same period last year.
Zekri said the murder was "the result of a growing stigmatisation of Muslims in France," fuelled by the shift to the right of the political class and the growth of Islamophobic rhetoric.
On Sunday, following the latest hate crime, the leader of the left-wing France Unbowed party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, denounced on X an "infamous racist murder."
"Let us not allow officials to stir up racist hatred by legitimising it. This is a message of compassion for the attacked family. All informed French people think the same and note the dangerous failure of Bruno Retailleau."
The latter reacted to the crime on Monday, expressing "[his] compassion for the victim's loved ones and [his] solidarity with the Tunisian community in France for this unbearable crime."
"The investigation will determine whether the racist nature of these acts is established, but videos published by the perpetrator leave no doubt on this point."
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