Petitjean, the second assailant in Tuesday’s assault, was a known entity to law enforcement whose name was on the French terror watch list as an Islamic radical for attempting to travel to Syria via Turkey earlier this year.
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The prosecutor’s office identified him as Abdel-Malik Nabil Petitjean following DNA tests on his corpse.
French prime minister Manuel Valls, who is facing calls to resign, today said the anti-terrorism judges who let Kermiche out of prison with the tag should not be blamed.
“There were worshippers there; there were nuns; and they took those people hostage, including that priest who was killed”. However, the official said he did not go to Syria.
Breitbart News reported Wednesday that the Roman Catholic parish of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray where the terror attack took place had donated land in 2000 to the local Muslim community for the building of the Yahia mosque.
Three days after teenagers Adel Kermiche and Abdel-Malik Nabir Petitjean slit the throat of Father Jacques Hamel, investigators are probing their network of associates from the northern Normandy region to the alpine east.
So-called Islamic State has released a video of what it says are the two men pledging allegiance to the group.
Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, called on Catholics to “overcome hatred that comes in their heart” and not to “enter the game” of the Islamic State group that “wants to set children of the same family upon each other”.
Petitjean and Adel Kermiche, the first formally identified attacker, seized six hostages in a church in Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, north France before killing an elderly priest and seriously wounding another hostage.
Petitjean – who was shot dead by police outside the church following the attack – was 19 years old and was from eastern France.
Religious leaders in France have sent a message of solidarity to the people after meeting with French President Francois Hollande, urging that now is the time to unite as people despite religious differences.
The prosecutor’s office said Wednesday the second attacker has not been formally identified.
Petitjean lived in Aix-les-Bains, in the north-east of France and hundreds of miles away from the site of the attack, according to RTL and other French media.
Brushing off Trump’s words, Hollande on Thursday told reporters France would always remain true to its values and ideals.
France’s Le Monde newspaper also reports that French security officials received a tip-off on Friday from an unnamed foreign intelligence partner that an individual was planning an attack in the coming days.
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Changes made to legislation in 2015, and the extension of a state of emergency in the wake of the Nice attack, already gave authorities sufficient “capacity to act”, he said.
