French police grill gunman's 'proud' brother

The brother of the gunman who killed seven people including young children in a shooting spree that shocked France, has boasted that he is "proud" of his sibling's actions, police said Saturday. Anti-terrorist police in Paris are interrogating killer Mohamed Merah's older brother Abdelkader, who was transferred from detention in the southwestern city of Toulouse on Saturday along with his girlfriend. Mohamed Merah, 23, was labelled a "monster" by French President Nicolas Sarkozy after he murdered three Jewish children, a trainee rabbi and three soldiers in three separate gun attacks this month in and near Toulouse. He was killed on Thursday in a hail of bullets as he tried to shoot his way out of a Toulouse apartment, bringing a 32-hour siege to a dramatic end but raising questions over police handling of the case. Abdelkader Merah, 29, who was taken into custody on Wednesday, admitted being present when the scooter his brother used in the killings was stolen, even though he said he knew nothing of Mohamed's criminal intentions. He added he was "proud" of his brother, whose murderous attacks triggered horror and revulsion across France and the world and led to the suspension of the campaign for the country's presidential election in April and May. Police and prosecutors have described Abdelkader as a more radical Islamist than his brother and said traces of what could be an explosive material had been found in his car. "His brother is at the heart of our investigation to reconstruct the path of Mohamed Merah and to try to determine if there was a structure behind it," said a source close to the investigation. Police said they were investigating whether the elder brother had provided financial or logistical support to the shooter -- something Abdelkader denied on Saturday, police said. A police source said a search of his home had uncovered no weapons or explosives and his computer contained nothing conclusive. The elder brother has long been known to police for his "Salafist and fundamentalist religious convictions," a police source said. On Wednesday, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said it appeared Abdelkader may have been involved in a network that took jihadists to Iraq in 2007. Mohamed's mother Zoulhika Aziri, who was released without charge on Friday, was "wracked with guilt and remorse" over her son's actions, her lawyer Jean-Yves Gougnaud said. "Could she have prevented these things? This is what she is asking herself," he said, adding that, fearing reprisals, she would not return home. In her dead son's Toulouse neighbourhood, police deterred about 30 people from holding a small rally, banned by the authorities, in memory of the killer and to support his mother. Sarkozy held an an emergency meeting Saturday with Prime Minister Francois Fillon and cabinet ministers to discuss security issues amid criticism of the way police handled the affair. The president later defended the RAID special police unit, saying: "I will not allow anyone to question the honour of RAID and the forces who brought an end to this monstrous individual's actions." France also lifted its top-level terror alert in the southwest, imposed after the gunman's shootings at a Jewish school in Toulouse on March 19. A judicial source also said police had identified the gun used in the attacks as an automatic Colt .45. Initial autopsy reports said Merah was fatally wounded by a bullet to the head and another to the abdomen during the final police assault. His body was riddled with gunshots, a judicial source said. Speculation is rife over Merah's motives and whether he had any accomplices. He had claimed to be an Al-Qaeda member killing to avenge Palestinian children and punish France for sending troops to Afghanistan. Interior Minister Claude Gueant told Le Figaro that Merah was a "terrorist acting alone." Fillon has said security officials knew Merah was a radical Islamist who had visited Afghanistan but had no reason to suspect he was planning attacks in France, home to Western Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim communities. The head of France's DCRI domestic intelligence agency, Bernard Squarcini, added there was little more that security services could have done to prevent Merah's atrocities. Christian Prouteau, who founded the GIGN, another elite unit drawn from the military police, said Merah could have been captured alive if teargas had been used -- drawing a sharp reaction from French police unions. While holed up, Merah told police that he travelled to Pakistan in 2011, but had been trained by a single individual, not at a training centre where spies may have reported his presence. French agents had investigated Merah after his trip to Afghanistan, but found no danger signs. "No ideological activism, no visiting mosques," Squarcini said.