the French anti-terrorist prosecution opens an investigation – Liberation

An investigation for “assassination in connection with a terrorist enterprise” is open this Thursday, May 11 in Paris following the attack on a synagogue in Djerba, Tunisia, on May 9. The National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office (Pnat) is taking up the case because of the French nationality of one of the victims, a 41-year-old Franco-Tunisian. The investigations were entrusted to the general direction of internal security, specifies the parquet floor. Tunisian side, “a preliminary criminal investigation has been opened”said Fethi Bakkouche, spokesperson for the court of Medenine (south-east), on which the island of Djerba depends.

The attack, which took place as hundreds of worshipers were completing the annual Jewish pilgrimage to the Ghriba synagogue, the oldest in Africa, left five dead: three gendarmes and two worshippers, killed outside the synagogue by the shots from the assailant, who was shot dead by the police. “The attack on the Ghriba Synagogue shocks us. We think with pain of the victims, of the Tunisian people, our friends. We are at the side of the family of our murdered compatriot,” reacted Emmanuel Macron in a message on Twitter. The Central Consistory of France condemned the attack on Wednesday “as cowardly as it is odious”.

Was the Ghriba shooter a lone wolf or a terrorist? Cautious Tunisian authorities say an investigation is underway “to determine the responsibilities involved in this cowardly affair.” In a statementthe French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for its part evoked a “attack” and condemned “with the greatest firmness this heinous act” perpetrated during the annual Jewish pilgrimage.