PARIS (AP) — A man suspected of killing a Muslim worshipper in a French mosque turned himself in to police in Italy after two days on the run, authorities said Monday.
French police fanned out widely to search for the suspect after the attack Friday in the former mining town of La Grand-Combe in southern France. The assailant recorded the attack on his phone, and security camera footage showed him shouting insults at God, local media said.
The French interior minister’s office said Monday that the suspect had surrendered to police in Italy, without elaborating.
Local prosecutor Abdelkrim Grini said Monday that investigators are favoring the hypothesis of an anti-Muslim act, though are also looking at other leads. He told broadcaster France-Info that ‘’we are not in a terrorist framework.''
The suspect is a man born in France in 2004, who lived in the area and did not have a criminal record, the prosecutor said.
The Grand Mosque of Paris condemned the attack and said the victim, a young man identified only as Aboubakar in French media, had just finished cleaning the mosque when he was killed.
A march was held Sunday at La Grand-Combe in support of the victim and a gathering against anti-Islam crimes was held in Paris.
“Racism and hatred based on religion will never have a place in France,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Sunday. “Religious freedom is inviolable.”
French government spokesperson Sophie Primas sought to defend the government Monday from criticism that top officials took two days to publicly condemn the attack. ‘’The law protects faith,'' she told reporters.
The Associated Press
