In Italy, authorities confirmed the detention of Issam Hlich, a 29-year-old homeless illegal immigrant from Morocco, as the main suspect in the horrific murder of Silke Sauer, a 44-year-old German woman who was also homeless.

Her body was found decapitated near an abandoned farmhouse in the park of the former CNR facility in Scandicci, outside Florence.

The preliminary investigation judge, Roberta Di Maria, approved his remand in custody, citing the risk of flight and reoffending. As reported by ANSA, the “barbaric” nature of the crime and the perpetrator’s attempt to clean the scene demonstrated “exceptional criminal persistence.”

According to the Carabinieri’s reconstruction, Hlich and Sauer were together on the evening of February 16. They had stopped at a bar near Leopolda station in Florence, where the man was shouting incomprehensible phrases and bothering customers. Police were called, but the couple had already left by the time officers arrived.

Shortly after 5 a.m. on February 17, they returned by tram to Scandicci. Surveillance cameras captured them heading toward the abandoned farmhouse, where an argument broke out.

Other homeless people in the park heard screams and a male voice reciting verses from the Quran, while shouting that the devil had possessed the woman. Immediately afterward, a female voice – presumably Sauer’s – was heard shouting “stop” in Italian.

The next day, an agitated Hlich was driving away anyone who approached the dog park next to the farmhouse. Sauer’s body was discovered on Wednesday, February 18.

The reference to the recitation of Quranic verses during the crime adds a particularly disturbing dimension as in many cases across Europe, authorities and “experts” rush to classify similar incidents as the “acts of mentally ill individuals”, dismissing any connection to religious texts. Evidently, this specific case suggests that Silke Sauer will not be the last victim of this kind of violence.

The incident serves as a reminder of the challenges Italy, and Europe more broadly, faces with the integration of certain migrants, especially when Muslim religious beliefs appear to play a role in violent crimes.