A Frenchman accused of murdering his Tunisian neighbor in the south of France will appear before an anti-terrorism judge on Thursday, June 5, the national anti-terror prosecutor's office said. Christophe B. is accused of killing Hichem Miraoui in an attack Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has described as both "racist" and "probably also anti-Muslim."
Anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the case, the first time a far-right racist attack has been treated as a "terrorist" offense since the unit was created in 2019. The suspect wanted to "disrupt public order through terror," according to a source close to the case.
Christophe B., a French national in his 50s, shot and killed Miraoui, a Tunisian man in his 40s, on Saturday in the southern town of Puget-sur-Argens before wounding another neighbor, a Turkish national. He posted racist videos on social media both before and after the attack, according to regional prosecutor Pierre Couttenier.
Retailleau said on Tuesday that the killing of Miraoui was "clearly a racist crime," "probably also anti-Muslim" and "perhaps also a terrorist crime."