French gunman's brother jailed

PARIS - The brother of an al Qaeda-inspired killer who died in a hail of French police bullets will be kept behind bars while he is investigated for possible complicity in the crimes, the public prosecutor's office said on Sunday.

Abdelkader Merah, 29, arrested last Wednesday as police laid siege to his brother Mohamed's Toulouse apartment following the killing of four soldiers, three Jewish children and a rabbi, was placed under formal investigation after four days of preliminary interrogation.

"Police inquiries have produced grave and matching pointers that suggest his participation as accomplice in crimes relating to a terrorist enterprise is plausible," the Paris public prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Armed police stand guard outside the French domestic intelligence agency (DCRI) headquarters in Levallois-Perret, near Paris, March 24, 2012. [Photo/Agencies]

The inquiry will seek to establish whether Abdelkader Merah, who state prosecutors say is already known to security services for helping to smuggle Jihadist militants into Iraq in 2007, should stand trial. His wife was released.

Abdelkader Merah said during preliminary questioning he was proud of his 23-year-old sibling's killing spree, a police source has said. Police also found explosives in a car that he owned, according to the Paris prosecutor leading the case.

Abdelkader's younger brother, Mohamed Merah, 23, was killed by a sniper last Thursday after a gun battle with police and a more than 30-hour siege during which he admitted the killings.