PARIS — The murder of a 46-year-old Tunisian man is being investigated as a possible act of terrorism “on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality, or religion,” a first for France’s National Anti-Terrorist Prosecutor’s Office, or PNAT.

Hichem Miraoui, who worked as a hairdresser in a small village near the French Riviera, was killed over the weekend by one of his neighbors. According to the local prosecutor, the suspect — a French man born in 1971 — “posted two videos on his social media account containing racist and hateful content before and after committing the act.”

“The investigation will determine whether these acts were racially motivated, but videos posted by the perpetrator leave no doubt on this point,” Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau wrote on his X account on Monday.

The PNAT, which opened in 2019 in the aftermath of a string of deadly terror attacks in France, told POLITICO later Monday it is investigating both the murder itself and whether there may have been a conspiracy to commit the act.

The office has faced criticism in past cases for not pursuing investigations into acts that could have appeared racially motivated or linked to right-wing extremism. In December 2022, it declined to investigate the murder of three people during a shooting at Paris’ Kurdish community center, drawing frustration from the community’s local representatives. The recent deadly stabbing of Aboubakar Cissé — a Muslim man killed while praying in a mosque — was left to be handled by local prosecutors.

Mourad Battikh, a lawyer representing the families of both Cissé and Miraoui, said he had previously warned the national prosecutor’s office about its reluctancy to overlook investigations into the mosque stabbing, which took place in April.

“I told the National Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor’s Office: Be careful, this is not an isolated case … what is happening is the result of something bigger that is beyond our control. Today, unfortunately, the facts prove me right,” Battikh told public radio station FranceInfo.

Both killings have also fueled political mudslinging, with France’s left-wing opposition accusing right-wing and far-right politicians of inciting this type of violence. Retailleau — a hard-liner on immigration and related issues — has been at the center of much of the criticism.