'Gunman's father should shut mouth over lawsuit'

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said Tuesday that the father of a gunman who has threatened to sue over his son's death at the hands of police should keep silent in shame.

"If I were the father of such a monster, I would shut my mouth in shame," Juppe told Radio Classique.

A senior advisor to President Nicolas Sarkozy, Henri Guaino, also lashed out at the lawsuit threat by Mohamed Merah's father Mohamed Benalel Merah.

"It is his right, but only one word comes to mind: indecent," he told France Culture radio. "This guy was a monster who killed in cold blood."

Mohamed Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Algerian descent, was shot dead by police at the end of a 32-hour standoff on Thursday after claiming the killings of seven people in a series of shootings in southwestern France.

His father Mohamed Benalel Merah told AFP on Monday he planned to sue France for having shot his son instead of taking him alive.

"France is a big country that had the means to take my son alive. They could have knocked him out with gas and taken him in," he said. "They preferred to kill him.

"I will hire the biggest named lawyers and work for the rest of my life to pay their costs. I will sue France for having killing my son."

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