Tunisia Calls French Police Shooting of Knife-Wielding Migrant ‘Unjustified Murder’

Tunis has described the killing of a 35-year-old Tunisian knifeman by French police in Marseille as an “unjustified murder” and summoned the French embassy’s interim chargé d’affaires to make a formal protest.

Abdelkader Dhibi was shot dead by officers on Tuesday after attacking five people with a knife and an iron bar in the city’s Belsunce district. In a statement on Wednesday, Tunisia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it “considers this incident an unjustified murder” and called for France to conduct a rapid investigation to establish responsibility.

Tunisian officials said they would “take all measures to preserve the rights of the deceased, his family, and their justice,” while also working to repatriate Dhibi’s body.

Speaking of his family, Marseille’s public prosecutor revealed on Wednesday that Dhibi had a long history of violence, addiction, and psychiatric troubles. As reported by Le Parisien, prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said Dhibi had been addicted to cocaine and alcohol, suffered from psychiatric disorders, and had been convicted in May for stabbing his nephew but remained free pending an appeal.

Accounts from his ex-wife, published by Le Figaro, painted an even grimmer picture. Sophie, 51, described Dhibi as “kind and pleasant” when they first met in 2019, but said he soon became paranoid, violent, and consumed by drug addiction. She detailed episodes of physical abuse, harassment, and threats. “I was so scared of him that I didn’t file a complaint. I thought, ‘It’s going to be worse, he’s going to kill me,’” she recalled.

She said his behavior worsened with cocaine use, paranoia, and psychiatric breakdowns. In 2023, she took him to the hospital during a crisis when he claimed to hear voices, but he left without following medical treatment. That same year, he stabbed his nephew multiple times because he suspected him of being homosexual. Sophie divorced him in 2024.

His marriage to Sophie had allowed him to remain in the country despite arriving illegally in 2018 via Italy. While initially held in multiple detention centers, he was released during the pandemic in 2020.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau confirmed that Dhibi held a French residence permit, valid until 2032, and was known to police for prior offenses, including anti-Semitic remarks made near a mosque in Sète. He was flagged for psychiatric monitoring, but had not been considered a radical Islamist threat and was not listed on any terrorism watch files.

While Tunisia insists on an investigation into what it calls an unjustified killing, French authorities emphasize that police responded to an immediate threat from a violent, unstable individual.