A week after the murder of Aboubakar Cissé, a 22-year-old Malian killed in the Mosque de la Grand-Combe (Gard), and five days after the arrest in Italy of the main suspect, the public prosecutor of Nîmes Cécile Gensac held a press conference this Friday evening. She explains that the suspect, Olivier Hadzovic, had a “desire to kill, whatever his target”, “without ideological demand”. Here is what to remember from the press conference.
Who is the victim?
Born in Mali in 2003, Aboubakar Cissé arrived in France around 2018. In 2019, he landed in the Gard where he experienced a “discreet insertion”, said the prosecutor.
A minor unaccompanied, he was then hosted in a host family and follows four months of French lessons, calculation and writing at school without borders, in Alès. Then joined a masonry course in November 2020 at La Grand-Combe, a small Gard town of some 5,000 inhabitants.
“The mosque was a refuge which also allowed it to be nourished and washing,” explained the prosecutor, who underlines that he led “a personal life without history”. He was considered “devoted and pleasant”, she continues.
What happened?
On April 25, he attended the first prayer, at the Khadidja mosque in the Grand-Combe. Then, as every week, it remains alone to clean up, volunteering, before the big Friday prayer, midday.
Around 9:30 am, a young man with ruffled black hair enters the place of worship, without removing his shoes, a heavy black bag in shoulder. Aboubakar Cissé does not be wary of this man who seems to ask him how to pray and who, when he kneels, tries to him dozens of stab wounds.
The autopsy revealed that he had received 57 stabs. His body was discovered around 11:15 am “on the prayer carpet” when the other faithful arrived at the mosque. Meanwhile, the murderer had fled.
The public prosecutor spoke of “a bloody crime scene” and “terrible circumstances”. “Nothing allows us to assume that Ababakar Cissé had already crossed the road to his attacker,” said the prosecutor.
Entrusted to an investigating judge of the Nîmes criminal center, the investigation into the case was opened on Monday for “aggravated murder by premeditation and at the rate of race or religion”.
Who is the suspect?
Olivier Hadzovic is a 20-year-old young Frenchman, also domiciled in the town of La Grand-Combe. According to the prosecutor, he came from a family of “non -practicing Christians”, which excludes the hypothesis of a settlement of accounts between faithful as mentioned shortly after the drama.
He was “unknown hitherto of police and justice services” but several reports concerning his videos and some of his “worrying remarks” on social networks had been made in the previous days with the Pharos platform.
The suspect filmed the dying victim with his mobile phone. “I’m going to be arrested, that’s for sure,” he said then when he realizes that he is also filmed by surveillance cameras inside the mosque.
The author of the facts sent her video to a social network, where she was quickly deleted.
How was Olivier Hadzovic found?
The man quickly left the mosque as he had arrived, “by bike”. “He then fled after changing his appearance,” first towards Hérault, then to Italy.
After a 48 -hour leak, Olivier Hadzovic went on April 27 to the Pistoia police station near Florence, accompanied by an aunt and a lawyer.
He “agreed to be given to France because he wants to go home,” said his Italian lawyer on Wednesday, Me Giovanni Salvietti. “And therefore the accelerated extradition procedure has been implemented, which will allow Olivier to be able to return to France around mid-May,” he added.
Why was the terrorist qualification not retained?
In his first statements to the Italian investigators, the young man recognized the murder of Aboubakar Cissé but denied having acted by hatred of Islam, indicating, according to his lawyer, “having killed the first person he found” on his way.
However, on the video, we hear him insult “Allah”. “I did it (…), your shitty allah,” he said twice.
“The facts appear at this stage built around the obsessive desire to kill a person,” said the prosecutor. He acted “in an isolated context”, guided by “very personal springs” and “without ideological demand”. “He had announced upstream that he was going to attack someone” and mentioned “suicidal ideas”.
The National Anti-aimoterorist prosecution (PNAT) has “at this stage” did not retain the terrorist qualification but it “remains under observation” on this sensitive issue, she continued.
Olivier Hadzovic risks life imprisonment.
