ALGERIA: Algerian relatives of Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah say they do not understand what caused his killing sprees, and that his body should be sent to Algeria for burial

Record ID: 574085

  • Title: ALGERIA: Algerian relatives of Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah say they do not understand what caused his killing sprees, and that his body should be sent to Algeria for burial
  • Date: 28th March 2012
  • Summary: BEZAZ, ALGERIA (MARCH 27, 2012) (REUTERS) ENTRANCE OF VILLAGE PEOPLE AT VILLAGE ENTRANCE VARIOUS OF MERAH FAMILY HOUSES ABDELKADER MERAH, UNCLE OF TOULOUSE GUNMAN MOHAMED MERAH, STANDING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABDELKADER MERAH, UNCLE OF TOULOUSE GUNMAN MOHAMED MERAH, SAYING: "I don't understand anything in this affair. It's a big mistake. This boy completely changed after being put in prison. He was brainwashed there. His mind was affected by his time in jail, we don't understand what happened." MAN AND HOUSES IN VILLAGE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) ABDELKADER MERAH, UNCLE OF TOULOUSE GUNMAN MOHAMED MERAH, SAYING: "The French state and the media are not very clear. One day they say he killed Jews, another day that he killed French people and after that you hear they were Muslim. You never get the truth. If this guy is a terrorist then bring us evidence. They say he went to Afghanistan and Pakistan, but we don't have any idea about all of that. He came here in 2003. He was very young. He was playing here with the kids who could not understand him because he could only speak French." VARIOUS OF CHILDREN IN VILLAGE (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) TAWFIK MERAH, COUSIN OF TOULOUSE GUNMAN MOHAMED MERAH, SAYING: "It's unbelievable that such a young kid can go to Afghanistan. The last time I saw him it was in 2002, he was very young. He came back in 2010, but I didn't see him. He was living in France and he was doing well. He didn't have any relation or link with all those organisations they talk about." WOMAN IN VILLAGE CHICKENS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MERAH FETAH, COUSIN OF TOULOUSE GUNMAN MOHAMED MERAH, SAYING: "Everything they say about Mohamed Merah is rubbish. He is just 23. How could he go to Afghanistan and Pakistan. It's impossible." VILLAGERS STANDING (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) MERAH FETAH, COUSIN OF TOULOUSE GUNMAN MOHAMED MERAH, SAYING: "Inshallah they bury him here, and not in a foreign land." CHILDREN IN VILLAGE
  • Embargoed: 12th April 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Algeria, Algeria
  • Country: Algeria
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVADF1D09GIDL034FIJBCSRXXP6G
  • Story Text: Close relatives of the Toulouse gunman who killed seven people in France this month spoke on Tuesday (March 27) of their shock and disbelief at what he had done, saying they could not understand what pushed Mohamed Merah to slaughter three soldiers, as well as three Jewish schoolchildren and their teacher.
    In interviews with Reuters Television in the dusty hamlet of Bezaz some 150 kilometres southwest of Algiers, Merah's paternal uncle reacted with disbelief and scepticism at the 24-year-old's actions.
    "I don't understand anything of this affair," said Abdelkhader Merah, the killer's 79-year-old uncle.
    "It's a big mistake. This boy completely changed after being put in prison. He was brainwashed there. His mind was affected by his time in jail, we don't understand what happened."
    Born in France to Algerian parents, Mohamed Merah died under a hail of police bullets last Thursday (March 22) following a 30-hour standoff with police during which he confessed to the killing of the soldiers in two separate incidents and to going on the rampage at a Jewish school on March 19.
    International news channel Al Jazeera said on Tuesday it would not air footage of the killings that it received from Merah at its Paris office on Monday (March 26), saying the pictures did not add anything to what was already known and did not conform to its ethical standards.
    Earlier, senior French officials had slammed Merah's father after he had been reported as saying that the government should not have killed his son.
    But in Algeria, other members of his family found it hard to believe that Merah had travelled to Pakistan and Afghanistan - where investigators suspect he became radicalised and inspired by al Qaeda.
    "It's unbelievable that such a young kid can go to Afghanistan. The last time I saw him it was in 2002, he was very young. He came back in 2010, but I didn't see him," said Tawfik Merah, a 32-year-old cousin.
    "He was living in France and he was doing well. He didn't have any relationship or link with all those organisations they talk about," he added.
    The drama unfolded with less than a month to go to the first round of voting in presidential elections in France and has brought issues of security and the integration of the country's large mainly north African minority to the forefront of political debate.
    But for the members of Merah's family, that is all a long away, and they are calling for his body to be returned to Algeria for burial.
    "Inshallah, he comes back to his land and we bury him with his ancestors," Tawfik Merah said. "It's better for him."
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: Footage contains identifiable children: users must ensure that they comply with local laws and regulations governing the publishing of this material.
Register