Report: Church attacker was 19-year-old inmate on furlough

26 July 2016, 5:40 pm

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One of the two attackers who murdered a priest in his church in northern France earlier today was on morning release from prison, where he was serving a sentence for trying to reach Syria using his cousin’s ID.

The Paris-based Marianne magazine identifies the attacker as a 19-year-old with the initials AK. It says he was jailed after his second attempt to travel to Syria and had become radicalized following the attacks in Paris in January 2015. He was allowed furlough every day from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., according to Marianne.

His parents live in the town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, where the attack took place, the magazine says.

Both attackers were shot dead by police.