The trial of four alleged accomplices in the 2016 murder in north-west France of an 85-year-old French priest while he celebrated Mass opened in Paris on Monday , reports Radio France Internationale.
Father Jacques Hamel had his throat slit at the foot of the altar while celebrating Mass on 26 July 26th 2016 at his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a working-class suburb of Rouen.
The two 19-year-old assailants, Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Petitjean, seriously wounded one of the worshippers they took hostage before themselves being shot and killed by police as they tried to leave the church.
The pair claimed in a video to be members of the Islamic State terror organisation, which later described them as "soldiers" retaliating for France's fight against jihadists in Syria and Iraq.
Father Hamel's murder came in the wake of a series of jihadist attacks that began with a massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January 2015 and the [November 13th Paris] attacks later that year.
The priest's killing raised questions about the ability of French intelligence agencies to prevent such attacks, since Kermiche was wearing an electronic bracelet at the time.
Prosecutors say that the four accused knew about the attackers' plan, with one of them travelling with Petitjean to Turkey in an attempt to reach Syria, just weeks before the attack.
They have denied the charges of conspiracy in a terrorist crime. Their lawyers have claimed that the men are being used as "scapegoats".
One of the accused, Rachid Kassim, a Frenchman who became a key IS recruiter and is the alleged instigator of the attack, has been charged with complicity in the killing by helping to choose the target and providing advice.