The self-confessed gunman Mohamed Merah divorced his wife one day before French police launched an assault on his flat in Toulouse. Merah claimed he shot seven people in the Toulouse area to "avenge" Palestinian children.

"/> The self-confessed gunman Mohamed Merah divorced his wife one day before French police launched an assault on his flat in Toulouse. Merah claimed he shot seven people in the Toulouse area to "avenge" Palestinian children.

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Toulouse gunman divorces wife hours before assault

The self-confessed gunman Mohamed Merah divorced his wife one day before French police launched an assault on his flat in Toulouse. Merah claimed he shot seven people in the Toulouse area to "avenge" Palestinian children.

Published: 26 March 2012 11:53 CEST

23-year-old Mohamed Merah was married for three months to a yound woman in the Toulouse area, newswire AFP reports. Merah tied the knot in a religious ceremony in December.

“We were married on December 15 and our divorce was made official on March 20, two days before his death,” the woman told AFP.

The couple were not joined in a civil marriage which means their union is not recognised by the state.

His former wife, who has not been identified in the French press, has refused to say why their marriage ended so soon.

However, the couple were divorced one day before the French police launched a assault on his flat in a quiet neighbourhood in Toulouse. The assault lead to a 32-hour stand-off before Merah was shot by a police marksman.

On Monday last week, Merah shot three children and a rabbi at the Jewish school Ozar Hatorah in Toulouse. He claimed he acted to avenge Palestinian children and punish French for its involvement in Afghanistan.

He also claimed two other attacks in which three paratroopers of North African and Caribbean origin were killed.

France to set up national prosecutor's office for combatting organised crime

Speaking to French Sunday newspaper Tribune Dimanche, Eric Dupond-Moretti said he also intends to offer “repentant” drug traffickers a change of identify.

This new public prosecutor’s office – PNACO – “will strengthen our judicial arsenal to better fight against crime at the high end of the spectrum,” Dupond-Moretti explained.

Former head of the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office Jean-François Ricard, appointed a few days ago as special advisor to the minister, will be responsible for consultations to shape the reform, the details of which will be presented in October, Dupond-Moretti said.

Inspired by the pentiti (repent) law in force in Italy, which is used to fight mafia crime, Dupond-Moretti also announced that he would create a “genuine statute” that rewards repentance.

“Legislation [in France] already exists in this area, but it is far too restrictive and therefore not very effective,” Dupond-Moretti explained.

In future, a judge will be able to grant special status to a repentant criminal who has “collaborated with justice” and “made sincere, complete and decisive statements to dismantle criminal networks”.

The sentence incurred by the person concerned would be reduced and, for their protection, they would be offered, “an official and definitive change of civil status”, a “totally new” measure, the minister said.

The Minister of Justice is also proposing that, in future, special assize courts, composed solely of professional magistrates, be entrusted not only with organised drug trafficking, as is already the case today, but also with settling scores between traffickers.

This will avoid pressure and threats on the citizen jurors who have to judge these killings, he said.

Finally, the minister plans to create a crime of “organised criminal association” in the French penal code. This will be punishable by 20 years of imprisonment.

Currently, those who import “cocaine from Colombia” risk half that sentence for “criminal association”, he said.

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