Three men who accosted a French Jewish teenager in a suburban Paris subway said they would do to him “what Mohammed Merah did.”

According to a report on the incident by the National Bureau of Vigilance against Anti-Semitism, a non-governmental organization known locally by the French acronym BNVCA, the 17-year-old Kippa-clad male was threatened in the southern Paris suburb of Vitry-Sur-Seine on March 3 by three black men who asked him “why Israel was doing this to the Palestinians.”

The report said the men also told the teen, identified by the initials J.C., that Mohammed Merah, the 23-year-old Islamist who last year killed four Jews at a school in Toulouse, “was right to do what he did.” They added, “Now we’re going to do what Merah did. We will kill all of you Jews, one day we will kill a Jew.”

A witness corroborated the exchange to BNVCA, the watchdog group said. The presence of the witness may have prevented a physical attack on the teen, the organization added in a report on the incident.

The man who gunned down a rabbi and three other Jews at a school in Toulouse last year really was “good and kind kid,” his mother told France 3 television. Mohammed Merah also had killed three French soldiers before he went on a rampage in Toulouse, killing his victims at point-blank range.

Mohammed Merah’s mother Zoulikha Aziri said, “Then he changed all at once, I don’t know why. He’s dead and took many people with him.” She said her son “never mentioned jihad.” Aziri also denied reports by other relatives that “there was talk of jihad” in the family.

Souad Merah, Mohammed’s sister, also was interviewed in Wednesday’s broadcast. She was questioned by French police last year after she was filmed praising her brother’s “bravery” and his actions. In November, one of Merah’s five siblings, Abdelghani Merah, said Mohammed Merah “grew up in an atmosphere of anti-Semitism.”

The families of Merah’s victims unsuccessfully sought a court injunction to block the 105-minute documentary titled “The Merah Affair: A shooter’s Itinerary.”

Lawyers for the family of Jonathan Sander, the rabbi Merah killed along with two of Sander’s sons and another girl at a Jewish school on March 19, 2012, called the film “obscene.”

“There is a form of indecency and obscenity in giving the stage to the people closest to Merah,” Ariel Goldmann, one of the family’s attorneys, was quoted as telling BFMTV, a television station.

The film, directed by Jean-Charles Doria, also included previously unpublished security camera footage from the days that preceded the shootings and an overview of failures that prevented authorities from catching Merah before the attacks. Merah had traveled abroad multiple times to receive military training in terrorist camps.

Mohammed Merah’s sister was summoned to a French police station for questioning regarding her praise for her late brother’s murder of four Jews.

Souad Merah entered the main police station of Toulouse on Wednesday morning, AFP, the French news agency, reported.

Last month, prosecutors in Paris said she might be indicted for incitement after she was filmed saying she was “proud” of her brother for killing three Jewish children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse on March 19.

Souad Merah, 34, was filmed without her knowledge by M6, a French television station, saying she was “proud” of her brother “for how he fought till the end,” adding: “The Jews are all about massacring the Muslims. I detest them. I think well of bin Laden. I told that to the cops. I am proud of my brother, proud, proud, proud.” The footage was aired on Nov. 11.

She later issued a statement saying she condemned his actions.

Mohammed Merah, a 23-year-old radical Muslim, killed three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse on March 19. He was killed three days later in a police raid on his home as he tried to jump out the bathroom window. Before attacking the school, he killed three French soldiers.

Christian Etelin, a lawyer representing Souad Merah, told AFP that his client had been “set up” by the M6 television station to say what she said about her brother.

A man and a woman in the Toulouse area were arrested on suspicion that they helped Mohammed Merah “commit crimes” that may have included the murder of four Jews.

According to L’Express, a French daily, French authorities arrested the two on Tuesday morning. Reports in the French media said there was no use of force.

The French news service AFP named one of the suspects as Charles Mencarelli and reported that he had been arrested in Albi, about 45 miles northeast of Toulouse. AFP described Mencarelli as not having a permanent address. His life partner was arrested at her home in Toulouse, according to the report.

The pair will be brought for arraignment within 96 hours of their arrest, according to  L’Express, during which time they will be interrogated about their links with Merah. They are not suspected of belonging to a jihadist network, an unnamed police source told L’Express.

Merah, a 23-year-old radical Muslim, killed a rabbi and three children in a pre-planned attack on the Otzar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse on March 19. The slayings came a few days after Merah gunned down three French soldiers in two drive-by shootings from a scooter near Toulouse. He was shot dead on March 22 by police as they stormed his home.

Tuesday’s arrests were headed by France’s domestic intelligence service, DCRI, and the country’s top SWAT team, the anti-terrorist SDAT unit.

A 17 year-old student from the Ozar Hatorah school in Toulouse, where gunman Mohammed Merah murdered three children and an administrator last March, was attacked violently on a train Wednesday night in Lyon, according to the French Interior Ministry.

AFP reported that the victim, who wore “identifiable religious symbols,” was first subjected to verbal insults on the train, according to the official announcement, and “was then attacked in the platform toilets by two individuals who beat him up.”

The attack was interrupted by a passenger and a train controller.

The student immediately registered a complaint with the Lyon authorities and “identities of both perpetrators are now known thanks to the actions of the railroad police,” according to the Interior Ministry’s statement, that also promised to continue “fighting the resurgence of the evil  of anti-Semitism,” which signifies “a slight to the history and values of the French Republic.”.

A source close to the investigation in Lyon told AFP that neither of the accused had been summoned for questioning on Thursday morning, after having been caught by the train’s controller.

After filing the complaint, the Jewish youth went on to his family’s home in Lyon.

With the initial stage of the investigation completed, it appears that the victim was beaten up after the two suspects noticed a religious chain around his neck, according to details released by the Interior Ministry, which added that “such acts of extreme violence are unacceptable.”

CRIF, the umbrella representative group of French Jewry, released a statement saying that the latest attack on a young Jewish student “is another development in the worrying trend of anti-Semitism in our country.”

“The number of incidents is continuing to increase, the violence of the acts likewise, as if the murders committed by Mohamed Merad had released the impulse to act,” CRIF said.

It added that it is especially incendiary to speak of “intercommunal conflicts” when discussing these incidents.

“It is always identifiable Jews who are the victims of these attacks. To combat anti-Semitism in France, you have to call it by its proper name and acknowledge the factors that increase it. And we have to make its eradication a national political cause.”

The CRIF hopes that the perpetrators will be subjected to appropriate punishment.

The father of Toulouse killer Mohammed Merah reportedly is suing police for allegedly murdering his son.

Mohamed Benalel Merah filed a lawsuit against the RAID elite police who shot his son.

“This is a suit against unnamed persons for murder with aggravating circumstances concerning those who gave the orders at the top of the police,” Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, a member of the legal team representing Mohamed Benalel Merah, told AFP.

Mohammed Merah, who murdered four at a Jewish school in Toulouse, was killed last March by police after a 32-hour siege at his house in the southern France city. Merah was fatally shot while jumping from his window during a daylong siege on his apartment in Toulouse.

“You’ve got 300 to 400 heavily armed people and a guy shut up all alone in his apartment. That alone is enough to raise questions,” Coutant-Peyre said.

Merah had confessed to the school killings, which included a rabbi and two of his young sons, and the daughter of the school’s headmaster. He filmed himself carrying out the attacks.

AFP reported that the head of the legal team, Algerian attorney Zahia Mokhtari, said he has evidence that Merah was “liquidated,” including videos that Merah filmed himself during the siege.

The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, has confirmed that the man responsible for last week’s shooting rampage at Toulouse Jewish school Ozar HaTorah visited Israel in 2010.

According to a Shin Bet investigation, Mohammed Merah entered Israel via the Allenby Bridge from Jordan in September 2010, before traveling on to Afghanistan,where he attended an al-Qaeda training camp. The investigation also revealed that the Shin Bet questioned Merah at the time, but having found nothing to arouse suspicion, permitted him to enter Israel.

Merah, who entered on a French passport, is reported to have stayed in Israel for three days. The Shin Bet has yet to turn up any evidence of terror-related links or activities during his stay, and thus could not confirm the claim made by a French intelligence chief last Friday that Merah was arrested with a knife while in Jerusalem.

This revelation comes amid confirmed reports that the killer was on the U.S. ‘no-fly’ list. U.S. officials have said that Merah was placed on the list some time ago, but have thus far refused to provide more details. Pressure is mounting on French intelligence agencies to admit to serious intelligence lapses and submit to a government inquiry.

Yesterday, a French judge brought Merah’s brother closer to criminal trial by placing Abdelkader Merah under formal investigation for complicity in Mohammed Merah’s shooting spree. Abdelkader has denied involvement in his brother’s attacks, but said that he was “proud” of what he had done.
Mohammed Merah died after resisting police who stormed his apartment last Thursday after a 32 hour stand-off. In the course of the siege, he told the police that he was responsible for the killings and that he planned to kill again. He expressed no regret and said it was too bad he did not “take out” more victims. He also expressed pride that he had “brought France to its knees.”

The Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, has confirmed that Mohammed Merah, the man responsible for the murders of 7 people last week, visited Israel in 2010.

According to a Shin Bet investigation, Merah entered Israel via the Allenby Bridge from Jordan, prior his travels to Afghanistan, in September 2010. The investigation also revealed that the Shin Bet questioned Merah, but having found nothing to arouse suspicion, permitted him to enter Israel.