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Terror support trial of gunman’s brother to open in France

FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, March 22, 2012, French police officers work outside the apartment of Mohamed Merah, left, in Toulouse, France, where Merah died after a fierce gunfight with police. Soon after Mohammed Merah's life ended in a torrent of explosions and bullets, Latifa Ibn Ziaten the mother of his first victim swore she would devote her life to ensuring that no other parents would suffer as she had, but since then France has endured a series of attacks. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, FILE) FILE - In this file photo dated Thursday, March 22, 2012, French police officers work outside the apartment of Mohamed Merah, left, in Toulouse, France, where Merah died after a fierce gunfight with police. Soon after Mohammed Merah's life ended in a torrent of explosions and bullets, Latifa Ibn Ziaten the mother of his first victim swore she would devote her life to ensuring that no other parents would suffer as she had, but since then France has endured a series of attacks. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, FILE)

By Associated Press October 2, 2017 1 min read

PARIS (AP) – The older brother of a French extremist who killed seven people in a series of attacks on a Jewish school and soldiers goes on trial for complicity in the 2012 shooting spree.

Monday’s criminal trial of 35-year-old Abdelkader Merah will be the first time a French court considers charges in the attacks that took the lives of three Jewish children, a teacher and three paratroopers, over nine days in the Toulouse region.

The gunman, 23-year-old Mohammed Merah died after a 32-hour televised standoff with France’s police special forces. Abdelkader Merah has denied helping his brother prepare for or perpetuate his deadly rampage.

Defense lawyer Eric Dupond-Moretti says the older Merah was charged with complicity to terror and sent to trial “by default” because the actual killer was dead.