Québec City mosque shooting: man charged with six counts of murder

Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, also charged with five counts of attempted
murder in attack prime minister Justin Trudeau called act of terrorism

Ashifa Kassam in Québec City
Monday 30 January 2017 23.45 GMT

A 27-year-old university student has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder over a shooting at a Québec City mosque during evening prayers, in what the Canadian prime minister described as an act of terror.

Alexandre Bissonnette, a student in the social sciences faculty at Laval University, is also facing five charges of attempted murder.

A local group dedicated to welcoming refugees, Bienvenu aux réfugiés, said Bissonnette’s name was familiar to them and that he had expressed support for Marine Le Pen, the leader of France’s far-right Front National.

In a Facebook post, the group said that Bissonnette was “unfortunately known by several miliants in Québec City for his viewpoints that were pro-LePen and anti-feminist, as expressed in social media and at the Université Laval”.

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