French prosecutors investigate suicide after family alleges racist harassment

French prosecutors said they had opened an investigation after a 21-year-old man died by suicide following what his family described as years of racist harassment.

The man's body was found Monday last week in Chatonnay, a village of about 2,000 people in southeastern France. Public prosecutor Olivier Rabot said the man had left two letters before his death.

Rabot said prosecutors were investigating allegations of repeated death threats motivated by racial hatred, psychological harassment, incitement to suicide, hazing and racial abuse.

The man's parents said he had faced racist abuse for several years from young people in the village, their lawyer Elise Rey-Jacquot said. She said people abused him at village events and told him: "You don't belong here."

The man's uncle told a French broadcaster that the victim's mother is of Algerian origin and that the young man had developed insecurities about his skin colour.

The family appealed publicly for witnesses from a party in the neighbouring village of Saint-Jean-de-Bournay, which the young man attended shortly before his death. Rey-Jacquot said he returned from the party extremely shaken after allegedly being insulted. She said the family had recently received testimony indicating that he may have been stripped naked and humiliated there.

In Chatonnay, several residents spoke of a troubling atmosphere. Arnaud Heligon, 53, said older generations had raised their children with everyday racism. A 23-year-old mixed-race woman identified only as Alex said her two sisters had been harassed at school and told: "your skin looks like poop."

Campaign group SOS Racisme said it had for months been warning of a resurgence in racist abuse and harassment. It said increasingly open racist speech was linked to its normalisation in public debate, and said some people now felt entitled to insult, harass and assault others.

Rights groups have warned of rising racist rhetoric ahead of next year's presidential election, which the anti-immigration National Rally party hopes to win.