Municipality of Souagui Accepts Burrying Merah in Local Grave

The municipality of Souagui in the province of Medea has accepted the demand to bury the body of French gunman Mohamed Merah in the local graveyard, the head of the Municipal Assembly, Mehdi Ahmed said Wednesday.“Our response should be sent back once we finish consultations with sub-prefecture and prefecture administrations,” Mr Mehdi Ahmed told Echorouk reporter. Meanwhile, confident source assumed that the local authorities of Souagui municipality have taken necessary measures to assure the good running of the funeral ceremony.The body of Mohamed Merah, suspected of killing seven people in southern France is due to arrive in Algeria Thursday, a family member says.Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent, was killed by police March 22 after a lengthy stand-off at his Toulouse apartment. A close relative of Merah, who asked not to be named, told AFP his remains would arrive in Algiers Thursday, via an Air Algerie flight. The body “will be accompanied by the mother and a sister of the deceased,” the relative said, adding the corpse would first be washed in France, according to Muslim custom, before being buried in the Medea region south of Algiers.