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Arab News
3 days ago
- General
- Arab News
'Why this hatred': French town reels over killing of Tunisian man
PUGET-SUR-ARGENS, France: The murder of a Tunisian man by his French neighbor in southern France, which is being investigated as a terror crime, has horrified the local community and raised alarm over rising racism in the country. Tributes poured in from shocked neighbors and friends mourning the murder of Hichem Miraoui, with more than a dozen bouquets placed outside the barbershop where he worked in the quiet town of Puget-sur-Argens. 'I don't understand why he was killed. Why all this hatred?' said Sylvia Elvasorre, a 65-year-old pensioner who lives next to the hair salon, tears in her eyes. Marwouen Gharssalli, 43, echoed her disbelief, saying his friend was generous and willing to lend a helping hand. 'He even cut hair for free when people couldn't pay... he regularly used to cut my son's hair,' said Gharssalli, a welder in the southern town. A card signed by fellow shopkeepers said the death of Miraoui — remembered as hard-working and warm — would 'leave a void.' Christophe B., a French national, shot and killed Miraoui, 46, on Saturday evening before injuring another neighbor, a Turkish national. The suspect, born in 1971, was arrested after his partner alerted police. He posted racist videos on social media both before and after the attack, according to regional prosecutor Pierre Couttenier. A silent march is planned in Puget-sur-Argens on Sunday to affirm the city's 'absolute rejection of hatred and our commitment to respect, tolerance and fraternity,' said a town hall statement. The shooting followed the murder of a Malian man in a mosque in April, also in southern France, while the burning of a Qur'an near Lyon at the weekend has further fueled concerns over rising anti-Muslim attacks in the country. 'People are stunned that a racist crime like this could happen. This kind of thing is not part of Puget's culture,' said Paul Boudoube, the town's mayor. Miraoui was in a video call with family planning for the major Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, when he was shot 'He was joking with our sick mother when I heard him grunt and the call ended,' said Hanen Miraoui, the victim's sister. According to French daily Le Parisien, the suspect in Miraoui's murder said he 'swore allegiance to the French flag' and called on the French to 'shoot' people of foreign origin in one of his videos posted on social media. Anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the investigation into the case, the first such racist attack linked to the far right to be dealt with as 'terrorism' since their office was set up in 2019. 'It means that investigative resources will be devoted to analizing the political motives behind this act and how this person became radicalized,' said the legal head of the anti-discrimination group SOS Racisme, Zelie Heran, who praised the referral. Following the murder, political and religious leaders have sounded the alarm over growing anti-Muslim acts in France, which increased by 72 percent in the first quarter, with 79 recorded cases, according to interior ministry figures. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who is taking an increasingly hard line on immigration issues, has faced accusations of not being firm enough against such crimes and even fueling a racist climate. But he said on Tuesday that the killing of Miraoui was 'clearly a racist crime,' 'probably also anti-Muslim' and 'perhaps also a terrorist crime.' Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, called on French President Emmanuel Macron to speak out. 'It is time to hold accountable the promoters of this hatred who, in political and media circles, act with complete impunity and incite extremely serious acts,' said Hafiz. 'Remind people of the reality that we are citizens of this country,' said Hafiz. France is home to the largest Muslim community in the European Union, as well as the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States. There has also been a rise in reported attacks against members of France's Jewish community since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 and the Israeli military responded with a devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip. France's Holocaust memorial and three Paris synagogues and a restaurant were vandalized with paint on Saturday.
Arab News
4 days ago
- General
- Arab News
French prosecutors treating Tunisian's murder as suspected terrorism
LONDON: Prosecutors in France investigating the murder of a Tunisian man are treating the case as a suspected racist attack, The Times reported on Tuesday. Hichem Miraoui, a 46-year-old hairdresser who had lived in France for 14 years, was shot five times on Saturday by his white neighbor, a 53-year-old named as Christophe B. The involvement of counterterrorism prosecutors instead of criminal prosecutors in the alleged far-right killing is a first in France. It follows mounting concerns over hate crimes against Muslims in the country after Malian man Aboubakar Cisse, 22, was stabbed to death outside a mosque in April. In last week's killing in the southern town of Puget-sur-Argens, a 25-year-old Turkish man was also shot but survived. The killer fled the scene by car but his partner alerted police, who arrested him. Christophe B, a sports shooting enthusiast who carried gun permits, had earlier posted videos on social media declaring that he planned to kill foreigners. He urged his compatriots to do the same, and in one video praised the late founder of France's National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described the killing of Miraoui as a 'racist act.' However, the minister was previously criticized for what anti-racism groups described as an inadequate response to Cisse's murder. Counterterrorism authorities were also questioned for failing to treat the Malian national's killing as terrorism, with the investigation into the case being carried out by criminal prosecutors. Retailleau on Tuesday visited the Tunisian Embassy in Paris to express solidarity with the community. The Tunisian diaspora in France numbers more than 1 million people. More than 6 million Muslims reside in the country, about 10 percent of the population. 'Racism in France and elsewhere is a poison, and we see clearly that it is a poison which kills. Every racist act is an anti-French act,' Retailleau said. Official government data shows that racist, xenophobic and anti-religious crimes rose by 11 percent in the country last year. However, such crimes in France are also 'vastly underreported' because 'victims often don't trust the police or the authorities,' said Jean-Marie Burguburu, chairman of the National Consultative Human Rights Commission.
The Guardian
4 days ago
- General
- The Guardian
France opens terror case after Tunisian hairdresser shot dead in ‘racist act'
French prosecutors have opened a terrorism investigation after a man in the south of France, who they say posted racist videos online, allegedly shot dead his Tunisian neighbour. Hichem Miraoui, 45, a Tunisian hairdresser who lived in the village of Puget-sur-Argents, near the Mediterranean town of Fréjus, was shot five times near his home late on Saturday and died at the scene. As local people laid flowers outside Miraoui's hairdressing shop on Tuesday and prepared to attend a march in his memory this weekend, the murder prompted warnings from anti-racism groups about trivialising racist rhetoric. The suspected killer, a 53-year-old French man believed to be Miraoui's neighbour, is thought to have fled by car and was arrested nearby after his partner alerted police. He is also thought to have wounded a Turkish man in the hand. The regional prosecutor, Pierre Couttenier, said the alleged killer, a sports shooting enthusiast, 'posted two videos on his social media account containing racist and hateful content before and after his attack'. French media reported that the man had sworn allegiance to the French flag and had called on French people to seek out and shoot people of foreign origin. Specialised prosecutors said they had opened an investigation into a 'terrorist plot' motivated by the race or religion of the victims. The suspect wanted to 'disrupt public order through terror', a source close to the case told Agence France-Presse. The classification of the fatal shooting as a potential terrorist act is significant: it is the first time since the national anti-terrorism prosecution unit was created in 2019 that an apparently racist murder has been investigated for potential connections to ultra-right terrorist ideology. The murder comes less than two months after Aboubakar Cissé, a Malian man who had trained in France as a carpenter, was stabbed to death inside a mosque where he volunteered in the southern French town of La Grand-Combe. The French national accused of the attack surrendered to Italian authorities after three days on the run and was extradited to France. Mourad Battikh, a lawyer for Miraoui's family, said: 'Hichem's death is the direct consequence of an atmosphere fed by stigmatisation … and the trivialisation of racist violence.' He later told France Info radio: 'We're looking at an ideology here, a premeditation. Here is an individual who probably did not act alone, who at least did not act on impulse.' He added: 'We must take the time to reflect and ask ourselves how do individuals manage to carry out the most hateful crime – to take a life – in the name of the French flag. Today, the French flag is being made into the standard of a hateful ideology.' Earlier, the anti-discrimination NGO, SOS Racisme, spoke of a 'poisonous climate' in France and what it called the 'trivialisation of racist rhetoric'. Bruno Retailleau, the hardline interior minister and head of the rightwing party Les Républicains, denounced Miraoui's murder as a 'racist act'. He told reporters: 'Racism in France and elsewhere is a poison, and we can see that it is a poison that kills. Every racist act is an anti-French act.' Retailleau had been criticised for failing to travel to the scene of Cissé's murder in April. Aurore Bergé, the minister for equality and anti-discrimination, told France Info: 'The state is mobilising against all forms of hatred.'
Free Malaysia Today
4 days ago
- General
- Free Malaysia Today
France probes terror motive after man shoots dead Tunisian neighbour
The shooting happened late Saturday in Puget-sur-Argens in the Var region. (Reuters pic) NICE : French prosecutors today were probing a terror motive after a man who had posted racist videos shot dead his Tunisian neighbour and badly wounded a Turkish citizen in the south of the country. The shooting late Saturday in Puget-sur-Argens in the Var region comes after a Malian man was stabbed to death in April in a mosque, also in southern France, as concern grows over hate crimes against Muslims. The shooting was initially investigated by regional prosecutors as a suspected murder motivated by the victim's ethnicity or religion. But French national anti-terror prosecutors (PNAT) announced Monday that they would be taking over the investigation. The suspected killer, a 53-year-old who is French, fled the scene in a car but was arrested not far away after his partner alerted police. He posted videos with racist content before and after the shooting late on Saturday, according to regional prosecutor Pierre Couttenier. The Tunisian man killed, believed to be 35 years old, was shot five times. The Turkish citizen, 25, was wounded in the hand and hospitalised, the prosecutor said. A sports shooting enthusiast, the suspect 'posted two videos on his social media account containing racist and hateful content before and after his attack', he added. The PNAT prosecutors said today that they had opened an investigation into a 'terrorist plot' motivated by the race or religion of the victims. 'The racist nature of this double crime is beyond doubt, given the hateful remarks made by the killer,' said SOS Racisme, an anti-discrimination NGO. 'This tragedy echoes a series of racist crimes that have occurred in recent months,' it said, denouncing a 'poisonous climate' in the country including the 'trivialisation of racist rhetoric'. Aboubakar Cisse of Mali was stabbed dozens of times while attending prayers at the mosque in the southern French town of La Grand-Combe on April 25. A French national of Bosnian origin accused of carrying out the attack surrendered to Italian authorities after three days on the run. Italy then extradited him to France to face justice. Interior minister Bruno Retailleau was bitterly criticised for never travelling to the scene of that crime to show solidarity, while PNAT anti-terror prosecutors also came under fire for not taking over the case and instead leaving it to regular criminal prosecutors.
CNA
4 days ago
- General
- CNA
France probes terror motive after man shoots dead Tunisian neighbour
NICE: French prosecutors were on Monday (Jun 2) probing a terror motive after a man who had posted racist videos shot dead his Tunisian neighbour and badly wounded a Turkish man in the south of France. The shooting late on Saturday in Puget-sur-Argens, in the southern region of Var, came after a Malian man was stabbed to death in April in a mosque, also in southern France, as concern grows over hate crimes against Muslims. The shooting was initially investigated by regional prosecutors as a suspected murder motivated by the victim's ethnicity or religion. But French national anti-terror prosecutors, known by their French acronym PNAT, announced on Monday that they would be taking over the investigation. The suspect wanted to "disrupt public order through terror", according to a source close to the case. The suspected killer, a Frenchman born in 1971, fled the scene in a car but was arrested not far away after his partner alerted police. He posted videos with racist content before and after the shooting late on Saturday, according to regional prosecutor Pierre Couttenier. The victim, who was born in 1979, was shot five times. The Turkish national was wounded in the hand and needed hospital treatment, the prosecutor said. "SWORE ALLEGIANCE TO FRENCH FLAG" The suspect, a sports shooting enthusiast, "posted two videos on his social media account containing racist and hateful content before and after his attack", the prosecutor said. According to French daily Le Parisien, the suspect said he "swore allegiance to the French flag" and called on the French to "shoot" people of foreign origin in one of his videos posted on social media. The PNAT prosecutors said on Monday that they had opened an investigation into a "terrorist plot" motivated by the race or religion of the victims. "The racist nature of this double crime is beyond doubt, given the hateful remarks made by the killer," said SOS Racisme, an anti-discrimination NGO. "This tragedy echoes a series of racist crimes that have occurred in recent months," it said, denouncing a "poisonous climate" in the country including the "trivialisation of racist rhetoric". Aboubakar Cisse of Mali was stabbed dozens of times while attending prayers at the mosque in the southern French town of La Grand-Combe on Apr 25. A French national of Bosnian origin accused of carrying out the attack surrendered to Italian authorities after three days on the run. Italy then extradited him to France to face justice. Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau was bitterly criticised for never travelling to the scene of that crime to show solidarity, while PNAT anti-terror prosecutors also came under fire for not taking over the case and instead leaving it to regular criminal prosecutors. On Monday, Retailleau denounced the murder of a Tunisian man, calling it a "racist act". "Racism in France and elsewhere is a poison, and we can see that it is a poison that kills," Retailleau told reporters. "Every racist act is an anti-French act." He added that he had spoken on the phone with the Tunisian ambassador to France. He later spoke to his Tunisian counterpart, Khaled Nouri, who "condemned a terrorist crime", according to an official government statement.
