The trial of the assassination of Father Hamel in Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray has opened
The trial of the attack of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, in Normandy, opens in Paris, almost six years after the assassination of Father Jacques Hamel with a knife during mass.
REUTERS/Pascal Rossignol
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The trial of the terrorist attack which cost the life of Father Jacques Hamel in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray, on July 26, 2016, opened on Monday February 14 in Paris.
Killed by the police, the two assailants will not be tried but four people accused of various complicity are being prosecuted before the special assize court.
Advertising
Read more
On July 26, 2016 in the morning, the mass ended in the church of
Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray
, near Rouen, when two young men of 19 entered it with a handgun and a knife in their hands.
Under the eyes of three nuns, they cut the throat of Father Jacques Hamel, 85, and seriously injured Guy Coponet, an 87-year-old faithful who was attending mass with his wife after forcing him to film the assassination of the priest with a telephone. portable.
Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Petitjean, who claimed to belong to the Islamic State and were on S for trying to join Syria, were shot dead by the police as they left the church.
Five and a half years later, three members of their "
family, friend or telephone
" entourage, in the words of the prosecution, will appear in the box of the special assize court in Paris for "terrorist association of criminals".
They are suspected in particular of having been aware of the intentions of Kermiche and Petitjean.
The shadow of Rachid Kassim
But it is the shadow of the fourth defendant, Rachid Kassim, which will hang over the hearings.
Presumed dead in a bombing in Iraq in 2017, the French propagandist of the Islamic State will be tried in absentia for having ordered the attack.
The Archbishop of Rouen, Monsignor Dominique Lebrun, is a civil party and explains what he expects above all "
justice
" for the accused.
"
Perhaps also that this justice is to find light to understand what happened, how young people, believers, can end up killing a priest who obviously did no harm to a fly, and maybe also a light on how to respond to this violence
,” he explains.
The trial is scheduled to last four weeks until March 11.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
google-play-badge_FR
France
Terrorism
Justice