The devil’s advocate
Judge freed priest’s ‘merciful’ ISIS slayer
The teen ISIS jihadist who butchered a beloved Catholic priest in a French church convinced a judge to set him free from jail months earlier — insisting that he was not an extremist and wanted to turn his life around, it was revealed Wednesday.
“I am a Muslim grounded in the values of mercy, and goodness . . . I am not an extremist,” Adel Kermiche, 19, said after serving a French prison stint for trying to join ISIS in Syria.
Kermiche was so convincing that authorities allowed his release in March, but required him to wear an electronic surveillance bracelet on his ankle — which he had on Tuesday when he slit the throat of 85-year-old Rev. Jacques Hamel after forcing him to kneel at the altar.
In February, the deranged killer lamented that he had been hospitalized for acute depression and “other mental problems,” but had aspirations of being a mental-health nurse.
“I want to get my life back, to see my friends, to get married,” Kermiche told a psychological review, according to a report leaked to the newspaper Le Monde.
The judge said Kermiche was “aware of his mistakes” despite his “suicidal thoughts,” and was therefore a good candidate to be reintegrated back into society, the Daily Star reported.
Prosecutors strongly disagreed, stating, “Even if he is asking for a second chance, there’s a very strong chance he will do the same thing if he is released.”
But the judge ordered Kermiche be fitted with the monitoring device, which permitted him to be out between 8 a.m. and 12:30 p.m., and released him on probation under his family’s supervision in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy.
Pope Francis weighed in on the matter Wednesday, saying, “This holy priest, who died just at the moment that he offered the prayer for the whole church, is one [victim]. But how many Christians, how many innocents, how many children? Let’s not be afraid to state this reality. The world is at war because it has lost the peace.”
Meanwhile, new video surfaced Wednesday showing heavily armed police rushing a nun to safety moments before officers fatally shot Kermiche and his accomplice, identified Wednesday as Abdel Malik, 20.
The 40-second cellphone video, shot from a nearby apartment window, shows police converging on the side entrance of the church, and captures the sound of gunfire.