Four men were on Wednesday handed sentences of between eight years and life in prison for having helped or encouraged the 2016 murder, claimed by the so-called islamic State group, of Father Jacques Hamel, 85, whose throat was slashed during mass in his church in northern France by two 19-year-olds who were shot dead by police.
Four alleged accomplices in the July 2016 murder of 85-year-old French priest Jacques Hamel, whose throat was cut by two teenagers who claimed to be acting in the name of the so-called Islamic State group, has opened in Paris.
Local police intelligence officers became aware of the growing threatening online messages of one of the two jihadists who killed Catholic priest Father Jacques Hamel in Normandy in July 2016 five days before the attack, but the information was not passed on to the national French intelligence agency, Mediapart can reveal. When the police intelligence unit later discovered this delay they doctored the files in a bid to make it look as if their original discovery was only made on the day of the attack itself. The French prosecution services have now opened an investigation into the affair. As Matthieu Suc reports, this claim of a blunder and attempted cover-up will raise fresh questions over the effectiveness of France's counter-terrorism operations.
Farid K, 30, a cousin of one of the killers, was arrested on suspicion of 'terrorist association', while other suspect allegedly tried to travel to Syria.
A 17-year-old who tried to reach Syria last year with one of two men who attacked a church in Normandy was detained in Geneva and deported to France, reports say.
Adel Kermiche, one of two men who attacked a church in Normandy on Tuesday morning and committed the horrific murder of an 86-year-old Catholic priest in the name of the Islamic State group, was at the time on conditional release from preventive detention. The revelation that he was wearing an electronic tag with permission to leave his home near to the church on weekday mornings has caused a storm of controversy in France, and fierce criticism of the judges who decided his release from prison in March, despite the objections of the public prosecutor's office. Mathilde Goanec hears from fellow magistrates of what they describe as a fine line in assessing the true danger individuals like Kermiche represent.
After meeting with President François Hollande, France's religious leaders called for solidarity in face of what Paris mosque rector called 'blasphemous sacrilege'.
A priest was murdered and one of his parishioners left in a critical condition by two knife-wielding men acting in the name of Islamic State group (IS) who attacked a Normandy church during a celebration of Mass on Tuesday morning. IS later claimed responsibility. The assailants, who had cut the 85-year-old priest’s throat in front of a small group of nuns and worshipers, and who attempted to cut the throat of a parishioner, were shot dead by police as they came out of the church in what is believed to be the first attack on a Catholic place of worship in Europe by Islamic extremists. Paris public prosecutor François Molins provided further details about the attack on Tuesday evening. Graham Tearse reports.
Retired priest Jacques Hamel, 86, who had served almost 60 years in the clergy and who continued to help the local church, was described as 'a good man'.
