TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The French public prosecutor claimed that the man accused of fatally stabbing a Muslim Malian citizen in a mosque was not a terrorist. As reported by Arab News, the prosecutor stated that the perpetrator seemed to act alone due to an obsessive “urge to kill.”
A Bosnian French citizen allegedly stabbed Aboubakar Cisse 57 times in La Grand-Combe last Friday. Olivier Hadzovic then filmed his victim writhing in pain until he died and surrendered to the police in Italy. He is awaiting extradition to France.
Cecile Gensac, the public prosecutor for the nearest southern city of Nimes, said the 20-year-old suspect, Hadzovic, was “driven by a fierce desire to kill someone and failing that, to commit suicide.”
The perpetrator informed someone online that he would “do it in the street” before considering attacking the mosque.
Once inside, he wrote, “He’s black. I’m going to do it.”
He seemingly had “profoundly personal motives,” and the crime was not treated as "terrorist" because it was not related to an “ideological claim,” said Gensac.
Cisse's murder prompted President Emmanuel Macron to affirm the absence of religious hatred in French society.
Earlier, about 700 people prayed for Cisse at the same mosque where he was slain. The congregation performed the funeral prayer in front of the covered green cloth coffin.
Cisse, who arrived in France as a teenager without documents, was from Yaguine in southwest Mali, where he will be buried in the future.
“This is an absolutely incredible act of hatred in a very peaceful place,” said Dominique Sopo, a representative of the SOS Racisme campaign group.
Hundreds of others prayed for the victim in a town outside Paris. “With the lack of support in the media and from politicians, we’re really sad and we’re really scared,” said Abdelghani Bentrari, who is responsible for the mosque in Tremblay.
France has the largest Muslim community in the European Union, and the murder has put Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a right-wing extremist politician with a tough stance on immigration, under particular pressure.
He has not visited the site of the murder in La Grande-Combe and has been criticized for not finding time to meet Cisse's family.
Speaking to CNews, a right-wing extremist French media, Retailleau this week claimed difficulty in finding Cisse's family because he is in France without a residency permit.
French parliamentarians on Tuesday observed a minute of silence to honor Cisse, and some members of parliament met with the victim's relatives.
According to sources close to the case, Retailleau will meet Cisse's family in Paris on Monday, when his coffin will be in the capital for another memorial.
Cisse, known as "Bouba," was born in Mali in 2003.
His uncle said he crossed the Mediterranean and arrived in Paris in 2018. He traveled to southern France in 2019 because “he did not want to be a burden” on his relatives.
In Grand Combe, locals remembered him as a quiet young man who helped clean the mosque and occasionally brought pizza to share despite not having much money.
Prosecutors said the suspect came from a non-practicing Christian family with 11 children. He appeared "very, very often" on social media, where he watched violent videos, including videos of people harming themselves.
In a video made right after the stabbing, the killer congratulated himself, saying "I did it" and ridiculing "Allah."
A witness said the suspect described himself as "schizophrenic" after the murder.
A man identified as the suspect's father told BFMTV on Friday that his son was "crazy" and apologized to Cisse's family.
Mourad Battikh, a lawyer representing the victim's family, previously said that the murder should be reclassified as "a terrorist attack." He said, “The Muslim community must be treated in the same way as any other citizens."
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