Toulouse killer: I'm not afraid of death

French television channel TF1 aired Sunday for the first time an audio discussion between Toulouse killer Mohamed Merah and the police during the 32-hour siege on his apartment. Merah was shot in the head in a gunfight at the end of the standoff.

In the recordings, Merah claims to be ready to continue his killing spree, saying he had links to al-Qaeda and organized crime groups. Merah also told the police how he managed to escape the intelligence services.

"I am a determined, I did not do it to get caught, you see. We are negotiating…Don't forget I am armed, I know what will happen; I know how you operate," he told the negotiator.

"I know you could shoot me, it's a risk I have to take. So now, know that in front of you, you have a man who is not afraid of death, my death. You love life," he added.

  

In the four-and-a-half-hour negotiations, Merah described his contacts with "brothers" from al- Qaeda in Pakistan, but also talked about the liberated lifestyle he had adopted: "It's part of the trick, you see," he told the negotiator.

Merah, a French citizen of Algerian descent, shot dead three soldiers, and three children and a teacher at a Jewish school, in a wave of killings that shocked the country.

The incident claimed the lives of Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, his 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons Gabriel and Arieh and 8-year-old Miriam Monsonego, daughter of school headmaster Rabbi Yaacov Monsonego.

Ynet