He had to wear an electronic tag, and could only leave his house between 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. on weekdays, which gave him the window of time to carry out the church attack.
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The two jihadists pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, a video posted on the Islamic State group news agency Amaq showed Wednesday.
As long as US leaders refuse to recognize the true nature of Islamist atrocities like the murder of Father Hamel, there will be more attacks like this in the United States.
French police used DNA tests to identify the second church assailant in Normandy, France, on Thursday.
Kermiche was known to security services and had been arrested twice in 2015 for trying to reach Syria to join the Islamic State, Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said.
The video claimed the two men were the church attackers pledging allegiance to the group’s leader.
Five other people – three nuns and two parishioners – were held hostage at the church; one of the nuns escaped, but one of the parishioners, an 86-year-old man, was critically injured.
They forced the 84-year-old priest of the 17th-century Église St Étienne to kneel, before slitting his throat and filming the video.
IS also claimed that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, who plowed a truck into a crowd in the French city of Nice on July 14, was one of their “soldiers”.
President Francois Hollande has said France will form a National Guard from reserve forces, in an attempt to prevent further attacks.
“What has enabled France to break up a large number of terrorist networks is keeping these people under “S file” surveillance, which allows intelligence services to work without these individuals being aware”, he said on Europe 1 radio.
“There is a war of interest, there is a war for money, a war for natural resources, a war to dominate people”, he continued.
The attack led to criticism of the French government after it was discovered the two attackers were known to security personnel before carrying out the terror strike.
French police stand guard near the church which was attacked in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Seine-Maritime department, France, July 26, 2016.
Here’s a voice the media aren’t promoting: Sister Danielle, the nun who slipped out during the terrorist attack on a church in France on Tuesday.
However during a raid on the home of the attacker, 19-year-old Adel Kermiche, police found an identity card belonging to one Abdel Malik P, also 19.
“But he would quote the Koran to us, saying France is the land of the unbelievers, and we should go to Syria and fight”, he continued.
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Turkey spotted Petitjean at a Turkish airport going to Syria on June 10, said a security official.
