Cousin of church attacker charged and detained – Paris prosecutor

A cousin of Abdel Malik Nabil Petitjean, one of the two men believed to have murdered a French priest in a church near the French city of Rouen last week, has been detained and charged, the Paris prosecutor’s office said on Sunday.

In early June, Petitjean flew to Turkey, often a waypoint on the route to Syria, but then turned around to return to France a day later.

Religious leaders in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray have refused to prepare or bury Kermiche’s body, saying they do not want to “taint” Islam by having any connection to the jihadist.

Petitjean and his accomplice Adel Kermiche, both 19, were shot dead by police.

“What this young man did was sinful; he is no longer part of the community”, Khalid El Amrani, a 25-year-old local Muslim, was quoted as saying.

They held five people hostage – the priest, two nuns and an elderly couple – before fatally slashing the priest’s throat and seriously wounding the other man. The terror group’s media wing subsequently posted a video on Telegram showing the pair pledging allegiance.

Kermiche was also known to security services and was wearing an electronic surveillance tag while on bail as he awaited trial for membership of a terror organisation at the time.

On Sunday, Muslims attended Catholic mass in churches around France in solidarity and sorrow following the brutal murder of a priest, the latest in a string of attacks.

On June 29 he was flagged to French authorities and immediately put on a special watch list.

Days before the Normandy attack, French authorities had received a photo of Petitjean from a foreign intelligence service that warned the man had threatened to carry out an attack on France.

It is not clear what caused Petitjean to turn around.

“The utter disrespect to a place of worship of these terrorist elements makes the attack even more horrific”, it said, adding that “there is no justification for the horror and brutality perpetrated by these terrorist elements”.