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France ‘protects’ thousands of churches for Easter

France's Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Sunday said 13,500 police and anti-terror soldiers had been deployed outside 4,530 churches to protect them against any "terrorism" as they celebrate Easter.

Published: 31 March 2024 12:40 CEST

France 'protects' thousands of churches for Easter

A French Police vehicle is stationed outside the Saint-Maclou Cathedral. Photo: Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT/AFP.

“Law enforcement forces are present everywhere nationwide from Good Friday to Easter Monday to protect services in an extremely difficult context in which terrorism could hit,” he said.

“There are 13,500 police officers, gendarmes and (anti-terror) military personnel at 4,350 Christian places of worship, Catholic and Protestant,” he added.

France has raised its security alert to the highest level after an attack claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group at a concert hall in the Russian capital on March 22 claimed 144 lives.

France has been rocked by a series of deadly jihadist attacks in recent years. Two planned attacks have been foiled since the start of the year.

One involved “violent action against a Catholic religious building” by a man “clearly committed to jihadist ideology”, according to the national anti-terrorist prosecutor’s office.

The 62-year-old was arrested and remanded in custody in early March, prosecutors said.

Catholics and Protestants are commemorating the resurrection of Jesus this Sunday, while Orthodox Christians will wait until May 6.

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Christmas market attack plotter jailed for 30 years by French court

The 42-year-old was the main defendant of four accused of helping Cherif Chekatt, who shot and stabbed shoppers at the market and was killed by police after a 48-hour manhunt.

Prosecutors said Mondjehi, who is of Ivory Coast origin, helped Chekatt obtain a gun for the attack in a square in front of Strasbourg cathedral on December 11, 2018.

Chekatt killed five people, including a Thai tourist and an Italian journalist, and wounded 11 before he was wounded and escaped in a taxi.

He was killed in a shootout two days later, after hundreds of police and security forces launched a manhunt. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack, and a video of Chekatt pledging allegiance to the group was found at his home.

Mondjehi was found guilty of associating with terrorists but not guilty of complicity in terrorist murders as the court said he did not know what the gun was to be used for.

Mondjehi was one of four defendants in the trial held before a special court in Paris. He gave no reaction before being led away.

Two other men were found guilty of playing a minor role in helping Chekatt and were given jail terms of up to five years. A third defendant was acquitted.

An 83-year-old man still faces charges for having sold the gun used in the attack to Mondjehi and Chekatt. But he is considered too ill to be tried.

Mondjehi was a former prison cellmate of Chekatt, who the court was told was a hardened criminal who had been on a list of security risks.

Prosecutors said the two had a close relationship in the months leading up to the market attack.

“I think deeply and feel a lot of sadness for all the victims. All my life I will regret what happened,” Mondjehi told the court in his final statement on Thursday ahead of the verdict.

“I would never have thought that he would have done that, I never thought that he was radicalised,” he said.

While defence lawyers acknowledged Mondjehi had admitted to helping obtain the weapon, they insisted he was unaware of Chekatt’s plans and so should not be convicted of terrorism.

“The victims feel relieved,” said Mostafa Salhane, the taxi driver forced to take Chekatt away from the scene of the attack, following the verdict. Salhane sat in on nearly every day of the five-week trial.

“Justice has been served,” said the mayor of Strasbourg, Jeanne Barseghian, in a statement after the sentence was handed down. “I hope that the verdict can contribute to the process of mourning [for the victims] even if their suffering will always be immense.”

The trial, which began in February, is the latest legal process over a number of jihadist attacks in France since 2015. Most of the actual attackers were killed, but a number of people have faced trials for complicity.

In December 2022, eight suspects were convicted over a 2016 attack in the Mediterranean city of Nice, when an Islamist in a truck killed 86 people.

In June 2022, 20 defendants were convicted over their roles in major attacks in the French capital in November 2015, when 130 people were killed.

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