The man suspected of stabbing a Muslim to death in a mosque in southern France has given himself up at a police station in Italy, a French prosecutor announced Monday.
“This is very satisfying for me as a prosecutor. Faced with the effectiveness of the measures put in place, the suspect had no option but to hand himself in – and that is the best thing he could have done,” said Abdelkrim Grini, the prosecutor of the southern city of Ales, who is in charge of the case.
French authorities announce tighter security at mosques after deadly attack
The public prosecutor told BFM TV: “I can confirm that the alleged perpetrator did indeed go to an Italian police station, near Florence, last night at around 11-11.30pm.” “We knew he had left France ... It was only a matter of time before we got our hands on him,” he added.
Commenting on the motivation for the attack, Grini said: “The anti-Muslim motivation is the preferred lead (...) but there are also elements in the investigation that suggest there were other motivations for carrying the act ... perhaps a fascination with death, to be considered as a serial killer.”
French politicians on Sunday condemned the attack, which was captured on video and published on Snapchat.
France, a country that prides itself on its homegrown secularism known as “laicite”, has the largest Muslim population in Europe, numbering more than 6 million and making up around 10 percent of the country’s population.
