French free mother of the maniac

PARIS — The mother of the Frenchman who killed seven people in a shooting rampage has been released without charge, a judicial official said Saturday.

Zoulika Aziri was freed late Friday, the official said on condition of anonymity because the information wasn’t cleared for public release.

Aziri’s son, Mohamed Merah, is blamed for a series of deadly shootings that have shocked France and upended the country’s presidential race.

Merah, who claimed allegiance to Al Qaeda, died in a hail of gunfire Thursday after a dramatic 32-hour standoff with police in Toulouse.

Merah had filmed himself carrying out attacks in southern France that began March 11 and killed three Jewish schoolchildren, a rabbi and three French paratroopers with close-range shots to the head, prosecutors say. Another Jewish student and a paratrooper were wounded.

Investigators are trying to figure out whether the Frenchman of Algerian descent acted alone. His older brother, Abdelkader Merah, along with Abdelkader's girlfriend, remain in police custody in Paris.

Key questions include how Mohamed Merah — described by French intelligence boss Ange Mancini as “a little failure from the suburbs” — was able to amass an arsenal of weapons — including an Uzi submachine gun — and rent a car, despite having no clear source of income.

The Associated Press