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Mohamed Merah
Mohamed Merah, as seen in an image shown on the French television station France 2. Photograph: Anonymous/AP
Mohamed Merah, as seen in an image shown on the French television station France 2. Photograph: Anonymous/AP

Toulouse shootings: al-Jazeera decides against airing video

This article is more than 12 years old
TV channel says it will not screen footage that appears to show Mohamed Merah's deadly attacks at a school and a barracks

Al-Jazeera has decided against airing a video that purports to show the attacks on soldiers and a Jewish school in south-western France, which was apparently filmed by the killer, and includes the cries of his victims.

The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, other French officials and family members of the victims had asked for it not to be broadcast.

The station later posted a brief statement on its website, saying: "al-Jazeera will not air video of French shootings.

"In accordance with al-Jazeera's code of ethics, given the video does not add any information that is not already in the public domain, its news channels will not be broadcasting any of its contents." The footage was contained on a USB key sent with a letter to the Paris office of the Qatar-based television company, Zied Tarrouche, the station's Paris bureau chief, said on the French TV station BFM.

The letter, written in poor French, with spelling and grammar errors, claimed the shootings had been carried out in the name of al-Qaida. Police believed the video had been posted by an accomplice of the killer.

Police traced the attacks to Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman who was killed last week after a standoff of over 30 hours' duration with police at the building where he lived.

Merah had claimed to police that he had links to al-Qaida, and had travelled to Afghanistan and received weapons training in the Pakistani tribal region of Waziristan. But the authorities have since questioned some of his claims.

Prosecutors have said Merah filmed all of his attacks, which began on 11 March with the murder of a French soldier. Before the killings ended, two more soldiers and three Jewish children and a rabbi were dead.

Speaking before the message appeared on the website, Tarrouche said the images appeared to have been taken from the point of view of the killer, perhaps – as was reported at the time of the school killings – from a camera hung around his neck. He said the images were a bit shaky but were of a high technical quality.

The video had clearly been manipulated after it was taken, according to Tarrouche, with religious songs and recitations of Qur'anic verses laid over the footage.

He said: "You can hear gunshots at the moment of the killings. You can hear the voice of this person who has committed these assassinations. You can hear also the cries of the victims, and the voices were distorted."

In an address to police officers and judges, Sarkozy had asked that the images not be broadcast. He said: "I ask the managers of all television stations that might have these images not to broadcast them in any circumstances, out of respect for the victims – out of respect for the republic."

There was no indication that other stations had the images.

Earlier, Tarrouche said the Paris prosecutor, whose office is leading the investigation, had also called to explain the consequences of disseminating the images. But Tarrouche quoted the prosecutor as saying he would not prohibit the channel from "doing its work as journalists."

Tarrouche said investigators had spent Monday interviewing employees at the Paris bureau about the video.

More on this story

More on this story

  • Toulouse shootings: Mohamed Merah sent video of killings to al-Jazeera

  • Toulouse shootings: Algeria refuses to take gunman Mohamed Merah's body

  • Toulouse gunman's father criticised by Sarkozy over plans to sue France - video

  • How the Merah massacre shook French politics – into silence

  • Toulouse gunman's father says his son should not have been killed – video

  • Toulouse shooting: failure to find first target led assassin to Jewish school

  • Toulouse killings: in France or elsewhere, let's not play politics with murder

  • Toulouse gunman's brother 'proud' of killings, say police

  • Toulouse gunman's brother under investigation as suspected accomplice

  • Toulouse shootings leave France confused and demanding answers

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