It was 4 p.m. this Saturday afternoon when two shots rang out behind the Greek Orthodox Church of Lyon in the 7th arrondissement, causing panic in the neighborhood.
Two bullets, fired with a sawn-off weapon by a tall man dressed in black, which hit another man in the middle of the abdomen.
Its vital prognosis is engaged.
The victim is a 52-year-old Greek who officiates as an Orthodox priest in this church.
Nikolaos K. known as "Father Nikos" was targeted as he left the church he was closing.
To the municipal police officers who arrived first on the scene, he could just confide not knowing his assailant.
"A municipal police patrol who heard the detonations saw an individual fleeing and discovered near the back door of the church a man with gunshot wounds who turned out to be the archpriest of the place of worship," said the Lyon public prosecutor's office, which opened an investigation for an “assassination attempt” entrusted to the Lyon PJ.
The Lyon prosecutor's office, which works in conjunction with the national anti-terrorism prosecutor's office, says "neither rule out nor favor any hypothesis".
This Saturday evening, a suspect corresponding to the assailant's report was arrested in a neighborhood kebab.
He was taken into custody.
Accused of being associated with embezzlement
Father Nikos, who had been in the Greek Orthodox Church for eight years, was in any case to leave soon.
At the end of his term, he was to be replaced by another priest, already appointed, who was waiting for Nikolaos K. to vacate the apartment he occupied above the church with his wife and two children.
The aggression suffered by the priest caused a stir in the Greek community of Lyon.
"We are in shock, we are waiting to find out what happened" confides Nicolas Angeloudis, the former president of the Hellenic community in Lyon, "I saw him again last Sunday, at mass, it was the last mass because of the confinement.
We discussed afterwards ”.
Two years ago, the name of this Orthodox priest was associated with a dark history, accused by a former Greek Orthodox monk, Jean-Michel Dhimoila, of embezzlement, but also of sexual harassment and other evils.
Accusations, repeated and broadcast on a blog set up by the monk, which had led Father Nikos to initiate proceedings for "slanderous denunciations".
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During the hearing in November 2018, the Lyon Criminal Court measured the tensions between the two men.
Jean-Michel Dhimoila was ultimately convicted of defamation, then again on appeal.
More recently, Father Nikos had confided in relatives to discuss problems within his couple.