The migrant who confessed to starting a devastating fire at Nantes Cathedral has stabbed a 60-year-old priest to death after being released, according to reports.
40-year-old migrant Emmanuel Abayisenga, from Rwanda, has reportedly confessed to stabbing Father Olivier Maire to death in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, south of the city where he set the historic cathedral on fire last year.
“All my support for the Catholics of our country after the dramatic murder of a priest in the Vendee region,” said President Emmanuel Macron’s interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, in comments shared on social media, adding that he was en route to the scene.
The killing has incensed national populist opposition leader Marine Le Pen, who lamented the fact that “you can be an illegal migrant, set fire to a cathedral, not be expelled and then reoffend by murdering a priest” in comments quoted by AFP.
A fire in the 15-century cathedral in the French city of Nantes blew out stained-glass windows and destroyed the grand organ https://t.co/Xgn4tVsFNy pic.twitter.com/ELlwbnxb9Y
— Reuters (@Reuters) July 18, 2020
“The priest is 60 years old and had welcomed the suspect into his community after he was released from prison,” an investigating source said of the killing, as reported by The Sun.
“[The suspect] was recently placed under judicial control, and went to live in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre,” the source added.
“He said to have carried out the killing on Monday morning, before handing himself into police.”
The source painted a slightly different picture of the killing, however, suggesting the migrant appeared to have “beaten his victim to death”, according to early evidence.
This story is developing…
France’s Catholic community has suffered its latest fatal attack after a Rwandan migrant who confessed to setting last year’s fire at Nantes Cathedral handed himself in to police admitting to killing Father Olivier Maire in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre.
Identified as Emmanuel A. in French media but named in full elsewhere as Emmanuel Abayisenga, the Rwandan had in July 2020 admitted to the arson of the Gothic cathedral. The 40-year-old migrant, who had been a volunteer at the place of worship and was in charge of locking up the building in the evening, had allegedly lit three fires on July 18th of that year, destroying stained-glass windows, a historic painting, and the grand organ, among other damage.
Released from prison under judicial control in May while still awaiting trial for the arson, Abayisenga was taken in by Father Olivier Maire and lived at the Montfortains religious community in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre, south of Nantes. The migrant reportedly handed himself in on Monday morning to police, admitting to killing the 60-year-old priest.
According to France Info, the migrant had been subject to a deportation order but could not be removed while still under the judicial control order. For Breitbart London’s full coverage, read here.
The incident would not be the first time members of the Catholic community were killed in France in recent years.
In October 2020, 22-year-old Tunisian illegal alien Brahim Aouissaoui fatally stabbed three people in the Basilica of Notre-Dame of Nice before being subdued by police, resulting in him needing hospital treatment. In December, he was indicted for attempted murder in connection to a terror attack.
Continue reading: Breitbart.com
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