A prosecutor in the case against Yassin Salhi on Tuesday said investigators had uncovered a link between the Daesh militant group and the attack on a gas plant during which Salhi hung the severed head of his employer on a nearby fence, AFP reported.
According to his lawyer, Salhi acted purely out of personal revenge for being reprimanded for dropping equipment from a pallet.
French prosecutor Francois Molins said Salhi tricked his boss into getting into his van, knocked him unconscious, and strangled him.
Before reaching the plant, Salhi decapitated his employer, and sent two photos of the remains to a friend in Syria. One photo was a selfie with the victim; the other was an image of the severed head placed carefully on the torso. He then drove the van into the plant filled with flammable gas canisters.
"Yassin Salhi beheaded his victim before hanging his head to the factory fence in an effort to give maximum publicity to his act - he admitted to it during his interrogation," Molins said.
"This bears the trademark of the Islamic State group's propaganda which regularly calls for terrorist attacks to be carried out in France and more specifically, to slit unbelievers' throats."
When he was tackled by firefighters responding to the explosion and blaze, Salhi reportedly cried out Allahu akbar, the Arabic phrase for "God is great," Molins said.
Molins added that Salhi has a history of ties to radical Islam dating back to 2003.
The prosecutor has requested preliminary terrorism charges to be filed against Salhi and has opened a formal terrorism investigation, AFP reported.
