Wiesenthal Centre condolences to French Monastery: “Priest in charge of his assassin, who had admitted arson at Nantes Cathedral, is another victim of a ‘fault’ in the French judicial system.”

August 9, 2021

PARIS - Reportedly, a 39 year-old Rwandan refugee admitted setting ablaze the Nantes Cathedral last year, in July 2020. Sent to a psychiatric ward, he was released - apparently under probation awaiting trial - into a nearby Catholic monastery, in the charge of a 60 year-old priest, Fr. Olivier Lemaire, whose body was found in a nearby village this Monday.

The Centre’s Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted: “In the case of Sarah Halimi, her neighbour murdered her while screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’. He was sent to a psychiatric ward and exempted from a proper trial on grounds of incapacity and lack of responsibility, because under the influence of drugs.”
 
The Centre asks: “In the case of Fr. Lemaire, the question is, why had his murderer not been sent to jail for the admitted arson of the Cathedral?”

This attack on Catholic clergy recalls the 2016 slitting of the throat of another priest, Fr. Jacques Hamel, celebrating Mass in a church in Normandy. In that case, the two assassins were members of ISIS, the Islamic Caliphate.
 
“Interior Minister Darmanin has a hefty task in containing the forces of hate in France,” concluded Samuels.

Photo: The Nantes Cathedral set ablaze in July 2020. (photo: Ludovic Stang/Reuters)

For further information contact Dr. Shimon Samuels at csweurope@gmail.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).