PARIS (EJP)---French police questioned Abdelkhader Merah, brother of Toulouse killer and al Qaeda sympathiser Mohamed, for a second time Monday, on suspicion of complicity in the attacks which claimed the lives of seven people, including 3 Jewish children in March.

According to information provided to the French media by judicial sources, Merah, 29, who has previously admitted witnessing his brother steal the scooter he used in the killings of three Jewish schoolchildren, three soldiers and a Rabbi, was examined by police over seven hours, relating to his alleged role in helping to plan the attack as well as his supposed ideological indoctrination of his brother in radical Islam.

The elder brother had formerly been investigated by police for his links to extremist groups. Mohamed, 24, was shot dead by police following a 32-hour stand-off outside his Toulouse apartment on March 22.

French media reported after Abdelkhader’s initial examination that he had told police his brother had a third accomplice at the time of the theft of the scooter, but apparently refused to reveal his identity.

Eldest brother Abdelghani told (French Jweish umbrella organisation) CRIF president Richard Prasquier on a one-on-one interview in July that Mohamed, although responsible for his actions, was “also a victim of indoctrination”, at the hands of Abdelkhader, “who introduced him to radicalism, holds a great deal of responsibility”.

Abdelkhader’s lawyer, Eric Dupond-Moretti, insisted there was no evidence connecting him with his brother’s preparations for the larders in Toulouse and Montauban and predicted his client be released without charge.

The recent declassification of document relating to the two brothers by the Central Office for Internal Information (DCRI) revealed they had been subjects of surveillance operations. Abdelkhader was identified as a member of radical Islamist groups as early as 2007, with his brother joining him just two years later.

Additionally, Abdelkhader admitted to police he had taken part in Islamist training programmes in Afghanistan and Pakistan in late 2010, as well as spending several months in Egypt to learn Arabic, where his brother joined him “at the end of the Summer of 2010”.

Dupond-Moretti denied his client’s closeness to his brother made him complicit of the crime, adding that even if he had “indoctrinated his brother, that doesn’t make him an accomplice to murder”.

According to Patrick Klugman, lawyer for the families of the Jewish victims of the attack of on the Toulouse Jewish school, “behind the scenes, the defendant knows there is a strong case against him”. “The closer it came to the incident, the more the two brothers saw of each other”, he said, adding “if there is no evidence connecting him to the case, why did his lawyer not call for the questioning to be cancelled?”

Last month, French daily Le Monde reported it had received confidential documents proving beyond doubt that Merah did not act alone. A list of 186 phone calls to contacts in 20 foreign countries made by him, it said, pointed to a global network of contacts supporting his planned attacks and supported claims he had acted with the help of accomplices.

Merah killed Rabbi Yonatan Sandler, his two children and the daughter of the school’s principal in the attack outside the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse.