She told police he was ‘soft’ as they hunted him before priest murder
THE mother of one of the Islamic State fanatics who butchered a French priest at the altar of a church told police hunting him before the attack: “He’s a good Frenchman.”
French intelligence services received a warning that a terror suspect was preparing an attack four days before Ab d e l mal i k Pe t i t j e a n , 1 9, a n d a n accomplice murdered Father Jacques Ha mel , 8 6, o n T u e s d ay in SaintEt i e nne - du- Rouvray, a town near Rouen in Normandy.
The authorities received an image of the suspect after an anonymous tip-off on July 22 and confirmed Petitjean’s identity before circulating his ID and image to police stations. He had been put on the terror i st watch l i s t on June 29 after trying to travel to the Isis caliphate in Syria via Turkey.
On seeing the photograph received by counter-terrorism police, Petitjean’s mother Yamina told them: “Yes, that’s him. He’s a good Frenchman. He’s soft. I know my kid. I know my son. He’s not implicated in any of this.”
After the priest was killed, she denied her son could be involved, telling BFM TV: “I didn’t produce a devil. He’s not at all the monster that people want us to believe. No, no it’s impossible.”
She said she had spent the weekend with Petitjean at home in Aix-les-Bains, and thought he had gone to stay with a cousin in Lorraine, north-east France.
The anonymous tip-off included a colour photograph of Petitjean, but not his name and said he “was preparing to take part in an attack on national territory”. It added: “He’s already in France, and is preparing to act alone, or with others.”
Petitjean’s image was not released to the media at the time. Some French m e d i a o r g a n i s a t i o n s h ave since adopted a policy of not publishing photographs of people responsible for terrorist killings, to avoid glorifying them and their acts.
Petitjean and his accomplice, Adel Kermiche, also 19, were on terrorist watch lists, and should technically have been under surveillance.
Kermiche even wore an electronic tag, but it was switched off for four hours every morning to allow him a break from probation conditions set when he left prison in March. Police sources said t h e war n i n g a b o u t Pe t i t j e a n was received by Uclat, the counter-terrorism co-ordination unit. One source said: “It was being acted upon and everything was being done to track the terrorist down. Officers across the country were engaged in the race to find this suspect, but he evaded capture.”
An ID card belonging to Petitjean was found at Kermiche’s family home, which is close to the church. It is not known how they knew each other.
Survivors of the attack said an 87-yearold parishioner was forced to video the priest’s murder on a phone before he was stabbed. He survived by playing dead and is recovering in hospital.
Both terrorists were shot dead by police special forces commandos as they tried to escape from the church. Police revealed that Petitjean had been shot in the face repeatedly and was identified by DNA.
President François Hollande and senior ministers have faced calls to resign about security failures over a series of atrocities which have killed 250 people in France in the last 18 months. Many suspects were known to police and had travelled to and from Isis terrorist camps in Syria.
Defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that 4,000 members of the Sentinel military force were to patrol Paris, backed by tens of thousands of police officers and reservists.