Latest news with #racisme
Al Arabiya
21 hours ago
- General
- Al Arabiya
Suspect in murder of Tunisian man to appear before French judge: Prosecutors
A Frenchman accused of murdering his Tunisian neighbor in the south of France will appear before an anti-terrorism judge on Thursday, the national anti-terror prosecutor's office said. Christophe B. is accused of killing Hichem Miraoui in an attack Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau described as both 'racist' and 'anti-Muslim.' Anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the case, the first time a far-right racist attack has been treated as a 'terrorist' offense since the unit was created in 2019.
The Guardian
3 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.'
Al Arabiya
3 days ago
- General
- Al Arabiya
France probes terror motive after man shoots dead Tunisian neighbor
French prosecutors were on Monday probing a terror motive after a man who had posted racist videos shot dead his Tunisian neighbor 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 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. 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. Nouri urged French authorities to 'ensure the protection of the Tunisian community on French territory,' the Tunisian statement added.
