Cops seize Toulouse killer’s video
An undated and non-datelined frame grab from a video broadcast by French national television station France 2 who they claim to show Mohamed Merah. An undated and non-datelined frame grab from a video broadcast by French national television station France 2 who they claim to show Mohamed Merah.
French police were on Tuesday examining a video montage of images of the killings carried out by Mohamed Merah, who allegedly killed seven people in a rampage earlier this month, for clues as to whether he had accomplices.
The images were sent to the Al Jazeera television network by mail.
Al Jazeera's Paris bureau chief, Zied Tarrouche, confirmed to BFM TV that the Qatar-based channel had received footage of the killings, which the station had handed to police on Monday.
The network's editors would decide on Tuesday whether to broadcast extracts of the footage, Tarrouche said.
The parcel posted to Al Jazeera contained a memory stick containing a montage of images “of the various killings, with music and verses from the Qur’an”, along with a handwritten letter, France Info quoted police sources as saying.
Merah, a self-described “mujahedin,” filmed his execution-style killing of seven people in south-west France with a small camera strapped to his chest.
Counter-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins said Merah claimed to have posted the images on the internet, but did not say where or when.
Police are investigating who could have sent the parcel to Al Jazeera.
The postage date on the parcel was March 21, according to France Info - the day on which the police siege of Merah's Toulouse apartment began. He was killed a day later in a shootout with police.
Merah's brother, Abdelkader Merah, who was charged at the weekend with complicity in the killings, was arrested in the early hours of March 21. - Sapa-dpa