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Suspect released after Orthodox priests were shot in Lyon
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An Orthodox priest was attacked and wounded with a weapon in the French city of Lyon. A man arrested in the meantime was released. The background of the act is not yet clear.
reHe is free again after the life-threatening shooting of an Orthodox priest in Lyon. There is no reason to involve him further in the investigation, the French news agency AFP said on Sunday in reference to judicial circles. Furthermore, the man’s state of health is not compatible with police custody.
On Saturday, a stranger in the southeastern French city fired two shots at a 52-year-old cleric as he was about to close the church. The prosecutor has opened an investigation for attempted murder. Until now, the investigations have not been taken over by the French prosecutor’s anti-terrorist investigators. It is possible that the attacker had a personal motive.
The victim, the Greek priest, is in serious condition. He was about to “close his church” when the act occurred. The shot is said to have hit the man in the liver. The Interior Ministry issued a warning for an area in the city’s 7th district.
In a tweet, the President of the EU Council, Charles Michel, condemned the attack. In Europe, freedom of conscience is guaranteed for all and must be respected, violence is unbearable and must be condemned, the politician wrote.
On Thursday, a man had beheaded a woman in a church in Nice and killed two other people. French President Emmanuel Macron described the deadly attack as an “Islamist terrorist attack,” and the counter-terrorism prosecutor’s office launched an investigation. Prime Minister Jean Castex proclaimed the highest level of terror alert for the country.
Three suspects released in Nice
Three people were released after the knife attacks in Nice. This is a 47-year-old man who was arrested on Thursday after the Islamist-motivated attack in the southern French city, the French news agency AFP reported this Sunday in reference to judicial circles. The 35- and 33-year-old men who were detained on Friday were also released. A sacristan and two women were killed in the attack.
As the agency further reported, there is still a 29-year-old Tunisian in police custody who was arrested on Saturday in Grasse, about 25 kilometers from Nice. He is said to have entered the EU together with the 21-year-old attacker, also of Tunisian origin.
The perpetrator, who was shot by security forces in the attack, arrived in France with other migrants via the Italian island of Lampedusa. He is in hospital and cannot be questioned due to his health.
Also in police custody are two men who were arrested by security forces in the apartment of the 29-year-old suspect.
Due to the reissue of the Muhammad cartoons by the satirical newspaper “Charlie Hebdo”, the atmosphere in Muslim countries has recently heated up against France. In countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh, thousands of people recently took to the streets in anti-French protests.