The French authorities released five people detained as part of the investigation into the killing of a paralyzed Iraqi Christian last month in Lyon (central east), without bringing any charges against them, a judicial source told Agence France-Presse on Sunday.
The five were arrested in Lyon on Thursday as part of this investigation, which is now being handled by anti-terrorism investigating judges in Paris.
They were all in contact with a 28-year-old Algerian who was arrested in Italy as part of this investigation, according to sources familiar with the file.
The victim, Ashur Sarnaya, a 45-year-old Iraqi Christian, was stabbed in the neck on the evening of September 10 under the building where he lives in Lyon by a man who was waiting for him and then fled on foot.
During the attack, Ashur Sarnaya, a person with special needs, was filming a live video about the Christian religion.
“Very precise technical investigations” enabled investigators to quickly identify a suspect, and his location was traced to Italy, a French police source confirmed.
The man arrived by bus in Milan on September 12th, and went to Rome before heading south.
On October 2, he was arrested in southern Italy under a European arrest warrant.
France requested his extradition but he was still in Italy as of Thursday, according to two sources familiar with the case.
The Lyon prosecutor’s office quickly reclassified the investigation, initially opened on charges of premeditated murder, as a murder investigation, but investigators remained cautious about the motives for the crime.
On October 9, the scope of the investigation was expanded to include the crimes of “murder linked to a terrorist project” and “joining a criminal terrorist group.”
Consequently, the Paris Counter-Terrorism Unit took over the case without identifying the elements that led to its referral.
