NMES: A man suspected of stabbing a young Malian to death in a mosque in southern France and then filming his victim writhing in agony has been arrested after surrendering to police in Italy, the prosecutor said on Monday.

The killing of Aboubakar Cisse on Friday in a village in provincial France caused shock, prompting President Emmanuel Macron to say there was no place for religious hate in French society and Prime Minister Francois Bayrou to denounce an “Islamophobic” crime.

The suspect, a French national born in Lyon in 2004 and named only as Olivier A., “surrendered himself to a police station in Pistoia” near Florence in central Italy on Sunday, Abdelkrim Grini, the prosecutor of the southern city of Ales, said. He had been on the run for three days in the wake of the murder.

“This is very satisfying for me as a prosecutor, said Grini, who is in charge of the case. “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.”

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2025