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PARIS, March 26, 2012 (AFP)
The family of an Islamist gunman whose murder spree shocked France is divided over whether his body should be buried in France or his ancestral homeland Algeria, Muslim officials said on Monday,Mohamed Merah, 23, was shot dead by French police on Thursday at the end of a stand-off after his shooting attacks left three soldiers, three Jewish children and a Jewish teacher dead.
While some of the family want him buried in France, where he was born, others fear his grave will be desecrated and want him buried in Algeria, Abdallah Zekri of the French Muslim Council told AFP.
Zekri said one of the gunman’s brothers, Abdelghani Merah, had told him Merah indicated he wanted to be buried in France. The brother had asked for a “discreet” funeral to be held, Zekri said.
But he said Merah’s mother, Zoulhika Aziri, had asked for her son to be buried in Algeria “to avoid his grave being vandalized”.
In Algeria, Merah’s uncle Djamel Aziri told AFP that efforts had begun to have his body transferred to the country for burial in his father’s home region of Medea, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of Algiers.
“For the moment there are no obstacles. It is just a matter of procedures in France,” he said.
If the funeral were to take place in France, Muslim Council chief Mohammed Moussaoui said he believed it should be conducted away from the public eye.
“It is desirable that any ceremony take place anonymously for security reasons,” he said.
Merah, who claimed to have been trained by Al-Qaeda, carried out the three attacks on March 11, 15 and 19, before being cornered by police at his apartment in Toulouse and killed after a 32-hour siege.
