French TV airs interviews with Toulouse killer’s mother, sister
Mohammed Merah's mother said in a first interview with
French media that she did not understand what made her son kill three French
soldiers and four Jews in Toulouse last year.
“I don’t understand any of it, he was a good and kind
kid,” Zoulikha Aziri said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on France 3 TV.
“Then he changed all at once, I don’t know why. He’s dead and took many people
with him.” She said her son “never mentioned jihad.” Aziri also denied reports
by other relatives that “there was talk of jihad” in the family.
The interview was part of a controversial 105-minute
documentary titled “The Merah Affair: A shooter’s itinerary,” which the families
of Merah's victims unsuccessfully sought a court injunction to block.
Lawyers for the family of Jonathan Sander, the rabbi
Merah killed along with two of Sander’s sons and another girl at a Jewish
school on March 19, 2012, called the film “obscene.”
“There is a form of indecency and obscenity in giving the
stage to the people closest to Merah,” Ariel Goldmann, one of the family’s
attorneys, was quoted as telling BFMTV, a television station. Merah was killed
three days after his attack at the school while trying to escape from his
Toulouse home as police were preparing to raid the site.
Souad Merah, Mohammed’s sister, also was interviewed in
Wednesday's broadcast. She was questioned by French police last year after she
was filmed praising her brother’s “bravery” and his actions. In November, one
of Merah's five siblings, Abdelghani Merah, said Mohammed Merah "grew up
in an atmosphere of anti-Semitism."
The film, directed by Jean-Charles Doria, also included
previously unpublished security camera footage from the days that preceded the
shootings and an overview of failures that prevented authorities from catching
Merah before the attacks. Merah had traveled abroad multiple times to receive
military training in terrorist camps.
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