Toulouse killer's brother faces complicity charges

The older brother of Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah stood before a Paris judge on Sunday to face charges of complicity in murder and planning terror attacks. Abdelkader refuses involvement in his brother’s crimes.

Reuters/Gonzalo Fuentes

Abdelkader and his girlfriend were brought in for questioning on Wednesday. While his girlfriend was released without charge on Sunday, Abdelkader was taken before an investigating judge in Paris’s central courts.

"An inquiry into complicity in murder and criminal conspiracy with intention to prepare terrorist acts was opened Sunday" into Abdelkader, said a statement by the prosecutor's office.

He also faces a possible charge of gang robbery, in his involvement in the theft of the scooter his brother used during his crimes.

He admits to having been present when Merah asked at a Yamaha dealership how to deactivate the GPS on the scooter he had just stolen.

Police said that Abdelkader appeared to be a more radical Islamist than his brother, and has been long known to police for his fundamentalist religious convictions.

During questioning, Abdelkader told police that he was “proud” of his brother’s acts.

Merah killed seven people – including three soldiers, three Jewish children and a trainee rabbi – in and around Toulouse between 11 and 19 March.

Merah told police during the 32-hour siege at his home in Toulouse that he regretted not having killed more Jewish children during his attacks.

A police officer told the Journal du Dimanche that Merah said that he had planned to carry out attacks in Paris.

Merah was killed by police in his home on 22 March after France’s special police forces RAID surrounded his home and failed to take him alive.