Killer's brother held in custody

PROSECUTORS say there are “serious or corroborating clues” against the brother of the Toulouse killer, who is being held in custody after questioning by police.

Abdelkader Merah, 29, who is known to the authorities as a fundamentalist, reportedly said under questioning that he was “proud” of his brother, who died in a police stake-out of his flat after he murdered seven people, including three schoolchildren.

The Paris judicial authorities suspect him of “aiding and abetting murder”, “plotting terrorism” and, along with his brother, stealing the scooter that he used for his crimes.

Under questioning he reportedly admitted he was present when his brother stole the scooter he used to commit his crimes and that he accompanied him on a visit to a scooter dealer where he asked about how to deactivate the GPS tracker system. However he denied knowing about what he planned to do with it.

Expert investigations are said to have proved that Abdelkader Merah’s mobile phone was in the vicinity of the Jewish school in Toulouse on the day when his brother killed four people there. He also spent three hours having dinner with his brother the night before the crime.

Merah’s lawyer, Anne Sophie Laguens, has said her client “firmly condemns” what his brother did and refuses to become a “scapegoat” for his crimes.

• An English teacher has been suspended from a school in Rouen after she suggested to a terminaleclass they hold a minute’s silence in memory of Mohamed Merah. Most of the students walked out in protest. They said in a statement that the woman called Merah a “victim” and said his supposed link with Al-Qaida had been invented by the media.