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PUGET-SUR-ARGENS, France: The murder of a Tunisian man by his French neighbor in southern France, which is being investigated as a terror crime, has horrified the local community and raised alarm over rising racism in the country.
Tributes poured in from shocked neighbors and friends mourning the murder of Hichem Miraoui, with more than a dozen bouquets placed outside the barbershop where he worked in the quiet town of Puget-sur-Argens.
“I don’t understand why he was killed. Why all this hatred?” said Sylvia Elvasorre, a 65-year-old pensioner who lives next to the hair salon, tears in her eyes.
Marwouen Gharssalli, 43, echoed her disbelief, saying his friend was generous and willing to lend a helping hand.
“He even cut hair for free when people couldn’t pay... he regularly used to cut my son’s hair,” said Gharssalli, a welder in the southern town.
A card signed by fellow shopkeepers said the death of Miraoui — remembered as hard-working and warm — would “leave a void.”
Christophe B., a French national, shot and killed Miraoui, 46, on Saturday evening before injuring another neighbor, a Turkish national. The suspect, born in 1971, was arrested after his partner alerted police.
He posted racist videos on social media both before and after the attack, according to regional prosecutor Pierre Couttenier.
A silent march is planned in Puget-sur-Argens on Sunday to affirm the city’s “absolute rejection of hatred and our commitment to respect, tolerance and fraternity,” said a town hall statement.
The shooting followed the murder of a Malian man in a mosque in April, also in southern France, while the burning of a Qur'an near Lyon at the weekend has further fueled concerns over rising anti-Muslim attacks in the country.
“People are stunned that a racist crime like this could happen. This kind of thing is not part of Puget’s culture,” said Paul Boudoube, the town’s mayor.
Miraoui was in a video call with family planning for the major Muslim holiday of Eid Al-Adha, when he was shot
“He was joking with our sick mother when I heard him grunt and the call ended,” said Hanen Miraoui, the victim’s sister.
According to French daily Le Parisien, the suspect in Miraoui’s murder said he “swore allegiance to the French flag” and called on the French to “shoot” people of foreign origin in one of his videos posted on social media.
Anti-terrorism prosecutors have taken over the investigation into the case, the first such racist attack linked to the far right to be dealt with as “terrorism” since their office was set up in 2019.
“It means that investigative resources will be devoted to analizing the political motives behind this act and how this person became radicalized,” said the legal head of the anti-discrimination group SOS Racisme, Zelie Heran, who praised the referral.
Following the murder, political and religious leaders have sounded the alarm over growing anti-Muslim acts in France, which increased by 72 percent in the first quarter, with 79 recorded cases, according to interior ministry figures.
Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, who is taking an increasingly hard line on immigration issues, has faced accusations of not being firm enough against such crimes and even fueling a racist climate.
But he said on Tuesday that the killing of Miraoui was “clearly a racist crime,” “probably also anti-Muslim” and “perhaps also a terrorist crime.”
Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, called on French President Emmanuel Macron to speak out.
“It is time to hold accountable the promoters of this hatred who, in political and media circles, act with complete impunity and incite extremely serious acts,” said Hafiz.
“Remind people of the reality that we are citizens of this country,” said Hafiz.
France is home to the largest Muslim community in the European Union, as well as the largest Jewish population outside Israel and the United States.
There has also been a rise in reported attacks against members of France’s Jewish community since Palestinian militant group Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023 and the Israeli military responded with a devastating military offensive on the Gaza Strip.
France’s Holocaust memorial and three Paris synagogues and a restaurant were vandalized with paint on Saturday.

PARIS: New European rules designed to crack down on the trafficking of stolen antiques and art are causing alarm among gallery owners, with some dealers warning of suffocating red tape that will affect trade.

The sector is bracing for the implementation of Regulation 2019/880 on June 28 which will introduce strict new requirements for imports into the European Union from non-EU countries.

Dealers wishing to import goods such as archaeological treasures will have to provide documentation and proof that they have been exported from their country of origin legally.

Other items including artworks, coins or books that are worth more than 18,000 euros ($20,500) and are more than 200 years old will also be subject to the restrictions.

“We’ll end up buying nothing outside the European Union,” warned Antonia Eberwein, vice president of the National Union of Antiques Dealers (SNA) in France.

She warned that the markets for archaeological items, as well as pre-Columbian, Chinese or Indian art “risk being depleted, without putting an end to illicit trafficking, which by nature is invisible and undeclared.”

Pierre Valentin, an art and heritage specialist at London-based law firm Fieldfisher, believes the aim of the regulation is “laudable” but that implementing it could lead to an “evidential nightmare for collectors.”

In some cases, goods will have left their country of origin centuries ago before changing hands several times among collectors, with today’s owners left needing to prove their property was exported legally.

“We’re being asked to provide things that don’t exist,” said Eberwein, calling the regulation “absurd” and the evidence requirement “a total lack of understanding of the realities” of the market.

The regulation is a European response to developments spanning terrorism in the Middle East to changing attitudes to cultural appropriation.

The links between organized crime, terror groups and trafficking in cultural goods have been repeatedly raised by international police group Interpol and the United Nations.

Al-Qaeda and Daesh group were both found to have looted archaeological sites under their control in Iraq and Syria to help fund their activities.

The EU regulation, which was first proposed in 2017 following years of Daesh attacks in Europe, refers to the pillaging of archaeological sites reaching “an industrial scale.”

The European Commission estimated in 2017 that the illicit trade in cultural goods could be worth up to 6.0 billion euros a year, putting it on a par with drugs, arms or counterfeit goods trafficking.

“Money is the life blood of war for the terrorists who attack our continent or who fight in Iraq and Syria,” then EU economic affairs commissioner Pierre Moscovici said at the time.

There is also growing sensitivity in Europe about the continent’s colonial history and its role in looting artistic and cultural property.

Many major European institutions from the British Museum to the Louvre in Paris are analizing their collections and, in a small number of cases, returning items to their countries of origin.

Edouard de Lamaze, president of France’s Council of Auction Houses, which regulates auction houses, said the changes would have some positive effects and “will enhance transparency for buyers and collectors, and strengthen the role of auctioneers.”

But it also risks bringing “a heavy administrative burden and a slowdown in activity.”

Auctioneers “will now have to systematically rely on experts to trace the history of artworks — a task that is difficult, if not impossible,” especially in the case of inherited items with no documentation, he added.

Some countries, such as Mexico, “ban all exports and claim their entire archaeological heritage,” noted Alexandre Giquello, head of France’s Drouot auction group.

He views the regulation “very unfavorably” and warned of “significant economic losses.”

“While the aim is commendable, it could penalize a large part of the market by introducing a very convoluted process that is slow to implement and will drastically increase delays,” he said.

Paris-based gallery owner David Ghezelbash, who specializes in archaeological items from Greece, Egypt and Italy, said he was “not concerned,” however.

He operates outside the EU, including with American museums, and he already regularly commissions independent experts “to trace the history of each work, as far as possible.”

He acknowledged that “a grey area” would be formed for objects without documented provenance, however, especially inherited pieces which risk being discredited.