PARIS – A Rwandan immigrant strolled into French police headquarters on Monday and stated he had actually killed the Catholic priest offering him shelter while he waited for possible trial over a fire at a cathedral in 2015, main sources stated.
The 40-year-old surrendered himself in the mid-morning, a source acquainted with the examination stated. Shortly later on, authorities discovered the priest’s body in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sevre, in the Vendee area.
“All my support to Catholics in our country after the dramatic killing of a priest in the Vendee. I’m headed there,” Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on Twitter.
The killing will raise pressure on President Emmanuel Macron over his security and migration policy, 8 months out of a governmental election that will see his most significant difficulty originated from the far-right.
France’s migration authorities handed the Rwandan nationwide an expulsion order in 2019, however he stayed in the nation.
Prosecutors declare that a year later on he set fire to Nantes cathedral. The July, 2020, blaze swallowed up the within the 15th-century cathedral, ruining a grand organ, stained-glass windows and a painting.
“So in France you can be an illegal immigrant, torch Nantes cathedral, never be expelled and reoffend by murdering a priest. What’s happening in our country is unprecedented: the total failure of the state,” tweeted reactionary leader Marine Le Pen.
Local district attorneys are leading the examination, suggesting the killing is not being dealt with as an act of terrorism. BFM TELEVISION reported the Rwandan had actually gotten treatment in a psychiatric health center throughout July.
Senator Bruno Retailleau, who represents the Vendee area, recognized the victim as Olivier Maire, 60, head of the Montfortain Missionary Order at Saint-Laurent-sur-Sevre.
In an act of empathy, the victim had actually used his suspected killer shelter after the Rwandan was launched on bail while under official examination.
“Deeply shocked by the terrible murder of a priest who had taken his murderer into his care,” Retailleau stated on Twitter.
“What was this man still doing in France?” the senator asked.
Local worshippers explained a priest much liked by his parishioners and understood for his extensive homilies.
“I’m in shock. I cannot believe it to be,” sis Dorothee Harushinana, who went to a mass the priest had actually led on Sunday, informed Reuters by telephone. “He was someone close to the people. You could always call on him.”
