Slain French Paratrooper’s Girlfriend To Wed Soldier Posthumously

In France, Caroline Monet, girlfriend of Paratrooper Abel Chennouf, has applied for permission to marry the soldier posthumously. Abel was shot dead earlier this month in one of a series of killings blamed on 24-year-old Mohamed Merah.

Abel was reportedly at a cash machine when Merah shot him. His girlfriend, Caroline, 21, is carrying their unborn child, and the two were planning to get married before he was tragically killed.

Monet’s family lawyer, Gilbert Collard stated that she had applied for permission to get married to her late-boyfriend in a ceremony that will take place in a few weeks. He said that, despite it not yet being official, they “have just obtained from the Elysee (President Nicolas Sarkozy’s office) the authorisation for Abel Chennouf’s girlfriend to marry posthumously.”

While the practice of marrying someone posthumously is not completely unheard of in France, it is not common. The law in France allows a person to marry their fiance posthumously only by approval of the French President “in grave circumstances.”

Collard mentioned that, “I’ve already had it done twice, for policemen’s girlfriends…It’s a really moving ceremony, with an empty chair representing the dead spouse.”

He went on to say of Monet’s request that, “There won’t be any problems” He then added that he hopes the ceremony will “let the child have a father.”

Abel Chennouf was one of Mohamed Merah’s sevenvictims in France, including a teacher and three children at a Jewish school. Merah spent over a day holed up in an apartment filled with explosives and weapons, before he died jumping out a window in a hail of bullets.

What do you think of Caroline Monet’s request to marry Abel Chennouf posthumously?

View video of Abel Chennouf’s memorial service here:

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