A father of a victim of a failed French terror attack has spoken out about his "disappointment" that his daughter has been forgotten on the Legion of Honours list, where many other victims have been awarded the posthumous title.
Aurélie Châtelain, 32, was shot dead in April in a foiled terror attack. A heavily armed gunman was caught reportedly on his way to carry out shootings at several churches across Paris.
Ms Châtelain, a fitness instructor and mother to five-year-old daughter Juliette, was found dead in the passenger seat of her car in Villejuif, southern Paris, in what is believed to be an attempt to steal her car as part of the attack.
She was not among other terror victims who were awarded the Legion of Honour, France’s highest honour, in the New Year’s ceremony.
The victim’s father, Jean-Luc Châtelain, spoke on Europe 1 radio on Tuesday, voicing his "disappointment".
“I am disappointed with the French justice system. And not just because she didn’t get the award, but also because it had been asked for by the mayor and many others since April,” he told the radio station.
Mr Châtelain added that he hoped it was an oversight, and said he didn’t want to have to write a letter to the French president, Françoise Hollande, reported the The Local.
“I hope the president will react before it gets to the stage of me writing to him,” he said.
Ms Châtelain, from Caudry, northern France, reportedly had three bullet shots to the head and had just finished a Pilates class when she was killed.
She had posted on Facebook how happy she was to be in Paris for a Pilates training course, just hours before she died, according to The Local.
The attacker was reported to be a 24-year old IT student, and had a car full of weapons, including four Kalashnikov style automatic weapons and bullet proof vests and he admitted to planning and attempting to carry out a terror attack, according to The Guardian.
Included in the Legion of Honours list were all of the victims in the January terror attack on satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo’s headquarters in the capital, along with the three men who prevented a terror attack on the Thalys train in August.
The Legion of Honours was established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1802, and more than 600 people were decorated with the award in the most recent ceremony.
