Moroccan acquitted in murder of French priest

Ahmed Ichi, a Moroccan living in France, was acquitted Tuesday in the case of a priest who was killed in June 1995.

Ichi, now aged 41, was acquitted some hours after the public prosecutor asked for a 20-year prison sentence against him, conceding "we have no confession, but a motive, some elements and a person who was seen on the crime spot before the crime but not after."

The lawyer noted that there was no direct witness, no evidence, no DNA trace, and "in the incapacity to prove that Ichi was guilty, we are trying to show that he could be," he said.

Ichi was arrested seven months after the murder of the priest Jean Francois Issert, found dead in the cave of his presbytery. He was sent three years ago to a psychiatric hospital after having spent three years in preventive detention.