Gunman ‘shot priest in front of church after the priest had an affair with his wife’

On October 31, Father Nikolaos Kakavelakis, 52, was shot in front of his church in the 7th district of Lyon in the midst of a nationwide threat of violence, reports Le Parisien.

The Orthodox priest was thought to have been attacked by a gunman, and he was rushed to the hospital with life-threatening wounds.

On Friday, November 6, a 40-year-old Georgian man known as Georgia P. was arrested by judicial police and allegedly told police that Nickolaos had slept with his wife.

The Lyon public prosecutor, Nikolaos Jacquet, denied news of an alleged affair in a press release released the day after his detention.

Referring to the suspect in custody, Mr. Jacquet said that on Tuesday, November 3, Nikolaos came out of a coma and reportedly claimed to police that the act was committed by “a jealous husband.”

He told the suspected shooter’s companion that she did not have an affair with him, but the suspect alluded to by Nikolaos is the man in custody.

Mr Jacquet said: “As soon as the detention ends, the initiation of a judicial inquiry is envisaged.”

“The perpetrator turned out to be a woman’s husband who had a relationship with the victim.”

Initially, the police conducted a manhunt for the gunman and viewed the investigation as a possible terror attack, as France was at the time on high alert.