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Father Jacques Hamel was leading morning mass in the Normandy
town of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray in July 2016 when two attackers
stormed in, forced the 85-year-old to his knees and slit his
throat. They were both shot dead by police.
The four defendants have been charged with complicity in the
attack and "criminal terrorist association". Prosecutors have
said the men, who were all born in France, were in contact with
the attackers.
Three of the men appeared in the dock in the historic Palais de
Justice courthouse in Paris. Before the hearing, their lawyers
said they were innocent, Radio Franceinfo reported.
The fourth defendant, Rachid Kassim, who prosecutors say
contacted the attackers from Syria and encouraged them to kill
the priest, is being tried in absentia.
The U.S. military said they targeted Kassim, who they described
as a senior Islamic State militant, in a strike near the city of
Mosul, Iraq, in February 2017, though they did not say whether
he was killed.
Hamel’s murder was the first Islamist militant attack on a
church in western Europe and came just 12 days after a Tunisian
who had pledged allegiance to Islamic State drove his truck
through a crowd of Bastille Day revellers in Nice, killing 84.
Pope Francis said Father Hamel was a martyr.
More than 230 people were killed in a series of
Islamist-inspired attacks between 2015 and 2017 in France.
(Reporting by Tassilo Hummel; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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