The police custody of the 69-year-old man suspected of having murdered three Kurds on Friday in Paris and who admitted having wanted to kill foreigners, was lifted on Monday morning and he will be presented to an investigating judge with a view to a possible indictment.
A judicial investigation has been opened for assassination and attempted assassination on the basis of race, ethnicity, nation or religion, as well as for unauthorized acquisition and possession of weapons, added the prosecution, which specifies having requested remand in custody of the suspect.
The racist motive of the facts is confirmed: this retired train driver of French nationality told investigators that he felt a “hatred of foreigners that had become completely pathological” since the burglary of his home in 2016, reported Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau.
He described himself as “depressive” and “suicidal” and, according to Ms Beccuau, added: “but before committing suicide, I always wanted to murder migrants, foreigners” since this burglary. Early Friday morning, he went armed to Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) “to commit murders on foreign people”, continued the prosecutor. But, for lack of people in particular, he gave up his project.
After returning to his parents’ Parisian home, where he lived, he walked to rue d’Enghien (10th arrondissement) towards the Kurdish cultural center Ahmet-Kaya, whose location he knew.
“All migrants” targeted
The 60-year-old then opened fire with a handgun, killing two men, Mir Perwer, a Kurdish political refugee singer, and Abdurrahman Kizil, as well as the head of the Kurdish Women’s Movement in France, Emine Kara.
Three other men were injured. Five of the six victims are of Turkish nationality, the last of French nationality. The man explained “having attacked victims he did not know”, specifying that he was angry “with all the migrants” and “with the Kurds for having taken prisoners during their fight against Daesh (the Islamic State organization, editor’s note) instead of killing them +”, detailed Ms. Beccuau.
His intention was “to use all the ammunition and kill himself with the last bullet”, according to the prosecutor. His weapon, a Colt 45, four magazines containing a total of 14 ammunition and a box of 25 ammunition were found during his arrest.
As soon as he was arrested, the suspect said he acted because he was “racist”, said a source familiar with the matter. Placed in police custody on Friday shortly after the events, he was taken to the psychiatric infirmary of the police headquarters on Saturday at the end of the day for health reasons. His custody was finally able to resume Sunday at 4:25 p.m. until his release Monday morning.
In another case, the alleged shooter was indicted, in particular for violence with a racist weapon, suspected of having stabbed migrants in a Paris camp on December 8, 2021.
Placed in pre-trial detention for one year, the maximum period provided for by law for this type of act, he was released on December 12.
Flowers and candles
The elements seized during the search of the parental home did not reveal “any link with an extremist ideology”, specified Ms. Beccuau. He is not known to the intelligence services either, nor listed as an ultra-right activist, according to Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin.
Friday’s attack shocked the Kurdish community, which denounced a “terrorist” act and blamed Turkey. For many Kurds, this triple assassination echoes that, never elucidated, of three militants of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) on January 9, 2013 in Paris.
After the demonstrations in tribute to the victims on Saturday in Paris, Marseille and Bordeaux, several hundred people gathered again on Monday at midday at the scene of the attack, rue d’Enghien, to march to the rue La Fayette, where the three PKK militants had been killed.
Flowers and candles were placed alongside photos of the victims, posed at the place where they were killed on Friday, noted an AFP journalist. Like the representatives of the Kurdish community, the head of La France insoumise (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon asked Monday for a referral to the anti-terrorist prosecution. In a blog post, he explained that he does not believe that the Kurds were killed by “chance”. “Obviously, we can’t consider anything without thinking of Turkey,” he added.