French anti-terror prosecutor investigates killing of Tunisian national

The French anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into whether the killing of a Tunisian national in southern France was a racially motivated crime “related to a terrorist undertaking”.

The Tunisian man, who has not been officially identified but is thought to be around 35, was shot dead by a neighbour late on Saturday in the town of Puget-sur-Argens, the local prosecutor said. A 25-year-old Turkish national was also shot in the hand and taken to hospital after the incident.

The anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office told Reuters yesterday that it was investigating charges of racially motivated assassination and attempted assassination related to a terrorist undertaking, as well as charges of involvement in a terrorist criminal group planning one or several violent crimes.

The prosecutor for the southern commune of Draguignan said on Sunday that the suspect was a 53-year-old man who practises shooting as a sport and who published what it said was hateful and racist content on his social media account before and after Saturday’s killing.

The killing follows the fatal stabbing of Aboubakar Cisse, a 22-year-old man from Mali, in a mosque in the southern French town of La Grand-Combe last month amid what official figures suggest is rising racism in France.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau condemned Saturday’s shooting, saying on X that “racism must be severely punished.” Political opponents have said his stances on immigration and Islam have contributed to rising levels of hate crime.

French police recorded an 11 per cent rise in racist, xenophobic or anti-religious crimes last year, according to official data published in March.

France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, numbering more than six million and making up about ten per cent of the country’s population.

Some French politicians, including President Emmanuel Macron, have criticised what they describe as Islamist separatism in a way that rights groups have said stigmatises Muslims and amounts to discrimination.