Paris trial of four in priest’s Islamic State-claimed murder begins

Four people go on trial on Monday on charges of conspiring to commit a terrorist act in connection with the murder of a Catholic priest inside a Normandy church in 2016.

Father Jacques Hamel was slain by two 19-year-old attackers as he celebrated Mass on a quiet summer weekday in the small Normandy town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, in which two nuns and an elderly couple were held hostage before the assailants slashed the priest’s throat and seriously wounded the other man.

Another nun slipped away and raised the alarm, and police fatally shot both attackers as they left the church.

The four men going on trial are suspected of having helped or encouraged the attack.

Three were present at the Paris court on Monday.

Source: Al Araby