The top suspect in the beheading of a businessman that French authorities are calling terrorist attack took a “selfie” photo with the slain victim and sent the image via WhatsApp to a Canadian mobile phone number, officials said Saturday, reports the Los Angeles Daily News.
French investigators were working to confirm the identity of the recipient, but weren’t able to immediately confirm media reports that it was an unspecified person now in Syria, where the radical Islamic State group has seized territory, the security officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.
Leading suspect Yassine Salhi, a truck driver with a history of radical Islamic ties, as well as his sister and wife remained in custody in the city of Lyon a day after he allegedly crashed a truck into an U.S.-owned chemical warehouse and hung his employer’s severed head on a factory gate, officials have said.
One of the security officials said the selfie was forwarded via WhatsApp, the globally popular instant messaging system owned by Facebook, to a phone number in Canada.
No group immediately claimed responsibility. The severed head appeared to mimic Islamic State’s practice of beheading prisoners and displaying their heads for all to see, and came days after the militants urged attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. French authorities say Salhi had links to radical Salafists in the past.
Paris prosecutor’s office spokeswoman Agnès Thibault-Lecuivre said earlier Saturday that Salhi was refusing to speak to police investigators. She said that one of the other suspects initially arrested on Friday was released without being charged.
Investigators have not turned up any motive or possible foreign connection, Thibault-Lecuivre said. Under French anti-terrorism laws, Salhi and the women can be held up to four days before either being released or handed preliminary charges and locked up.
Read more of this Associated Press report published by the Los Angeles Daily News.