France deports Algerian father of Toulouse terrorist

Father of Mohamed Merah, who gunned down three Jewish children and a teacher in 2012, was refused residency permit in March

France on Friday deported the Algerian father of an Islamist who gunned down French soldiers and Jewish children in a 2012 killing spree, police sources said.

The father of Mohamed Merah, who shot dead three soldiers before gunning down three students and a teacher at a Jewish school, had been in the country illegally for months after authorities refused to renew his residency permit in March.

A source close to the case said the father, Mohamed Benalel Merah, was arrested near the cemetery where his son was buried after being killed by elite police after a 32-hour siege of his apartment in the southern city of Toulouse.

He was questioned and put on a flight to Algeria.

His son embarked on a killing spree, gunning down his victims from the back of a scooter between March 11 and 19, 2012, boasting that he was working for Al-Qaeda to police during the siege of his apartment.

Mohamed Benalel Merah later filed a murder complaint when police ended the siege by shooting his son.

Intelligence sources told AFP earlier this year that Merah’s half-brother Essid was suspected of having appeared in an Islamic State group execution video.

Merah’s sister Souad also left for Syria in 2014, the sources said.