A 31-year-old man who described himself as an “admirer of Mohammed Merah,” the Islamist terrorist who killed a rabbi and three young children at the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012, was arrested last week by police near Paris after admitting that he was planning to attack a nursery school and murder policemen.
The report by BFMTV channel was later confirmed by a Paris prosecutor.
The man was already known by intelligence services for his “radicalization.” A second man was also arrested. He is suspected of having been at least aware of the murderer’s intentions, without his degree of alleged complicity having been specified at this stage.
In March 2012, Mohammed Merah murdered Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, a teacher at the Ozar Hatorah school, in addition to his two sons—6-year-old Aryeh and 3-year-old Gabriel—as well as 8-year-old Miriam Monsonego.
Merah was later killed by a police anti-terror unit after a 30-hour siege at his apartment.