Toulouse gunman’s brother charged in connection with murders

The brother of the Toulouse gunman Mohamed Merah was charged on Sunday with complicity in murder and conspiracy to prepare acts of terrorism, French media reports said.

Abdelkader Merah, who has been placed in custody, denies the charges.

His lawyer, Anne Sophie Laguens, on Sunday denied earlier reports that he had said he was proud of his brother’s actions.

“He is not at all proud of the acts of his brother, as was said in the press,” she told reporters in Paris. “He strongly condemns them.

“He hopes he doesn’t become a scapegoat,” she added.

Mohamed Merah had admitted to shooting dead seven people in the Toulouse area before being killed in in an exchange of gunfire after a prolonged stand-off with police at his apartment also in Toulouse, southwest France. He had said he had links to al-Qaeda.

The political pressure on the government meanwhile did not let up, with two senior politicians questioning the handling of the crisis.

Abdelkader Merah denied any involvement in the shootings of three French soldiers, three Jewish schoolchildren and a trainee rabbi in three attacks claimed by his younger brother Mohammed Merah, 23.

Police and prosecutors have described Abdelkader Merah as a more radical Islamist than his brother who had long been known to police for what they called his “fundamentalist religious convictions.”

They considered him a hardline Islamist who had played a part in radicalizing his younger brother, a police source said.

The elder Merah and his girlfriend, Yamina Mesbah, were taken in for questioning on Wednesday.

While Mesbah was released without charge on Sunday, Abdelkader Merah was taken from the French police’s anti-terrorist headquarters in a Paris suburb to face an investigating judge in the city’s central courts.

There, he was indicted for complicity in the murders and conspiracy to prepare acts of terrorism.

The Merahs’ mother was released in Toulouse on Friday, also without charge.

Mesbah’s lawyer told France’s BFM TV she knew nothing of the “double life” of her husband, who was investigated in 2007 for links to a group that arranged for would-be French jihadists to travel to Iraq.

As police surrounded Mohamed Merah’s Toulouse apartment last week, the gunman claimed responsibility for all three attacks.

In the first two incidents he shot dead three soldiers in attacks in Toulouse and nearby Montauban.

Then last week he opened fire at a Jewish school in Toulouse, killing a 30-year-old teacher, his sons aged five and four, and a seven-year-old girl.

Police have said he filmed his attacks with a camera strapped to his body and had planned to post the footage online.

Thousands of people across France paid homage to the victims Sunday.

Local politicians and religious leaders joined a silent procession in the district of Toulouse where the attack on the Jewish school took place, many people clutching roses or small French flags. Police estimated some 6,000 took part.