The portrait of Father Jacques Hamel will remain prominently in the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray where he was killed on July 26, 2016. -

F. Pouliquen / 20minutes

Four people are referred to the special assize court for the 2016 assassination of Father Hamel in his church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, a source familiar with the matter announced on Friday.

The investigating judges in charge of the case dismissed two of these people for terrorist “complicity in murder”, according to the order of indictment.

He thought he was "a summer camp to learn religion"

The first person is the propagandist and likely instigator of the Rachid Kassim attack.

Targeted by an arrest warrant for "complicity", this jihadist, also accused of having remote-controlled the Magnanville attack and several attack projects in France, was reportedly killed in 2017 in the Iraqi-Syrian zone.

The other person is 26-year-old Yassine S.

Arrested a few days after the attack, he had joined the two jihadists in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray (Seine-Maritime) two days before the attack.

He told the investigating magistrate that he had made this 1,000 km journey thinking "to be among young people, like a summer camp to learn religion", and had finally left them 24 hours before the attack, attributing this departure to the remarks of the future attackers. on his "lax" practice of Islam.

The anti-terrorist prosecution had requested less heavy charges against him, but the investigating judges decided to dismiss him for “complicity”, because they believe that he “encouraged and facilitated” the act of the two assailants. , Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean, who were shot dead by the police as they left the church.

The two attackers shot dead by the police

The assassination in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray of this priest, a highly symbolic target, had an international impact, twelve days after the terrorist attack in Nice.

In front of three nuns and a couple of parishioners, the priest Jacques Hamel, 85, had just finished his morning mass on July 26, 2016 with these usual words: “Come on, have a good day.

Adel Kermiche and Abdel Malik Petitjean, 19, both registered S and who claimed to be part of the Islamic State organization, then enter through the sacristy, the first causing the priest to kneel.

Kermiche stabs him twice in the throat while an 86-year-old parishioner is forced to film the assassination with a phone before being stabbed in turn.

Wounded in the throat, arm and back, however, he survived.

When they left the church, the two assailants were shot dead by the police in this small town in the industrial suburb of Rouen.

A few hours later, President François Hollande spoke of a "despicable terrorist attack".

The memory of this attack was revived at the end of October by the attack on a basilica in Nice which left three people dead.

Miscellaneous

Attack of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray: The file for the beatification of Jacques Hamel will be handed over to the Vatican

Society

Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray: The long work of mourning and forgiveness of the inhabitants, one year after the attack

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