Relatives of Aboubakar Cissé, the young man killed in a mosque in La Grand-Combe (Gard) on Friday, April 25, consider it to be a terrorist act. A complaint will be filed to this effect, AFP reports.
According to the report by AFP, Lawyers for the family of Aboubakar Cissé , who was killed in a mosque in La Grand-Combe (Gard), will file a complaint for terrorist-related murder this Friday, May 2, a source close to the investigation, confirmed to Le Parisien . They want specialist magistrates to look into the case and assess the potential terrorist nature of this murder.
BFMTV also reported that to the lawyers to the family of Aboubakar Cisse, Mr. Battikh and Mr. Bouzrou, recall the conditions in which the young man, of Malian origin, was murdered in a mosque “with more than forty stab wounds” by a man who did not know him.
Although he knew he was being filmed by CCTV cameras, the assailant made no attempt to conceal his actions. “The method of this assassination was chosen to terrorize those who would find his body, who would have access to the CCTV footage, and who would be informed of the circumstances,” they believe.
“Terrorize the general public”
The crime scene is also likely to reveal a terrorist enterprise, according to them: “The choice to commit an assassination in a place of worship supposed to represent a place of peace for believers demonstrates that the perpetrator had, in addition to the intention to kill, an intention to disturb public order more broadly by intimidating and terrorizing, in particular, people of the Muslim faith.”
Immediately after the incident, the assailant made a video showing the bloody “large knife,” the murder weapon, and the young man “on the ground, dying.” “In this video posted on social media, he claims responsibility for his actions, saying, ‘Your fucking Allah… I stabbed him in the ass (…) Your fucking Allah… asshole,'” the lawyers explained.
“He also indicated that he is considering committing further assassinations, which is likely to intimidate and terrorize the general public, and in particular people of Muslim faith going to the mosque,” Mr. Battikh and Mr. Bouzrou added.
“Given the circumstances of the events, it is incomprehensible that the terrorist nature of this assassination was not taken into account in the legal classification of the facts,” they wrote to justify this complaint.
The suspect will be handed over to France
Subsequently, the magistrate who will receive this complaint on Friday may, after analysis, either issue an order refusing to investigate, allowing the current investigation to continue at the Nîmes judicial court, or open a new judicial investigation for terrorist assassination and appoint an investigating judge in Paris, specialising in anti-terrorism.
Aboubakar Cissé, a Malian man in his twenties, was stabbed to death by a man while he was in a mosque in La Grand-Combe on Friday morning.
Olivier A., 21, suspected of being the perpetrator, fled after the murder. Spotted in Hérault on Sunday morning, he eluded authorities and headed for Italy. He finally surrendered himself to a police station in Pistioa, north of Florence, on Sunday evening.
Presented before a judge on Wednesday, the young man agreed to be returned to France, where he is due to be charged. His return should be possible by mid-May, according to his lawyer.