In it, Kermiche identifies himself by the nom de guerre Abul Jaleel al-Hanafi and says his compatriot, who has not been identified, is called Ibn Omar. They were both shot and killed by police.
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“There will be no silence here. or beyond”, Mayor Hubert Wulfranc said of the loss of the town’s 85-year-old priest in an address to hundreds. Additionally, a security official confirmed that Petitjean was the unidentified man featured in a photo distributed to police with a warning that he might be plotting an attack.
“We know that he turned around and returned on June 11”, said the source.
A youth believed to be 16 was detained after the church attack is still being held for questioning, the prosecutor’s office said.
Sparking particular ire was the revelation that Kermiche had been released from prison while awaiting trial on terror charges after his second attempt to travel to Syria.
The 19-year-old, who lived in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray with his parents, had attempted to reach Syria twice. But the photo warning came without any name of the person depicted.
About 10,000 people in France are on the S list, majority alleged religious extremists, but officials say it is impossible to keep a close eye on each one.
Sources close to the investigation said Petitjean “strongly resembles” a man hunted by anti-terrorism police in the days before the church killing over fears he was about to carry out an act of terror.
President Francois Hollande on Thursday fired back at comments by U.S. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump that “France was no longer France” after a slew of militant attacks, saying France would always stay true to its values.
The Islamic State Amaq News agency has released a video showing Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean calling for more terrorism before he murdered Jacques Hamel, a French priest taken hostage during Mass at Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.
Petitjean’s mother Yamina told BFM TV that her son had never spoken about Islamic State.
Two opposition lawmakers on Thursday submitted a draft bill to parliament that would prohibit the media from publishing the identities and photographs of militant attackers to prevent their names being glorified in death.
Three of Petitjean’s relatives were being questioned by police and the family home has been searched.
Abdel Malik Petitjean, 19, was named by a source in the Paris prosecutor’s office as the second attacker, according to the BBC. Some in the government have said that all suspected terrorists should be tagged with the electronic monitors, possibly jailed, even if they have not committed a crime.
After 84 people were killed in the attacks in Nice, The Christian Science Monitor noted that the seaside resort had become a locus of radicalization, with 120 people in the region leaving to join jihadist groups in Syria.
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Since that Bastille Day killing, there has been a spate of attacks in Germany too, creating greater and wider alarm around Western Europe. Investigators insisted there was no evidence the three were in any way connected to the attack.
