Foreign minister commends police actions in assault against suspect in Toulouse

(22 Mar 2012) 1. Wide of French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe walking down stairs with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski
2. Cutaway camera
3. SOUNDBITE: (French) Alain Juppe, French Foreign Minister (on rumours of him saying there was a deficiency with the investigative bureau):
"This is unbelievable. I never spoke of any deficiency. It was somebody else who spoke about a deficiency and I was asked about it, to which I replied that I didn't think there was any deficiency, but if there were one, we should have complete transparency on it. This is how a media buzz gets created."
4. Cutaway of Sikorski (left) and Juppe (right) behind podiums
5. SOUNDBITE: (French) Alain Juppe, French Foreign Minister:
"Our police force was especially efficient. We gave this murderer all the opportunities possible to let him surrender himself and then to be brought to justice. He didn't want to take advantage of this opportunity, he stubbornly didn't budge on his absolute refusal and stand off. There was a time where the intervention had to happen and it is what happened and I don't have further comments on this."
5. Cutaway camera
6. SOUNDBITE (French) Alain Juppe, French Foreign Minister (on UN declaration against Syria):
"To demand that this regime stop the use of violence and that on the other side, this ceasefire be immediately put in place. And the second red line is that this declaration referenced in an explicit way the political transition necessary for the Syrian people to be able to access democracy. These two elements are in the declaration proposal thanks to what we have to recognise as the evolution of the Russian position."
7. Cutaway of Sikorski (left) and Juppe (right) behind podiums
STORYLINE
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has commended police actions in the shooting death of 23-year-old Mohamed Merah in Toulouse.
Speaking in Paris, he said the police force was "especially efficient."
"We gave this murderer all the opportunities possible to let him surrender himself and then to be brought to justice. He didn't want to take advantage of this opportunity," he said.
Merah, an Islamic extremist who boasted of killing seven people to strike back at France died after being shot in the head by police as he jumped out of his apartment after a fierce gunfight with police, authorities said.
Juppe denied ever speaking of a flaw in the way Merah escaped surveillance from the investigative bureau.
"I never spoke of any deficiency," he said.
"It was somebody else who spoke about a deficiency and I was asked about it to which I replied that I didn't think there was any deficiency but if there were one, we should have complete transparency on it."
Juppe, who was meeting with his Polish counterpart Radoslaw Sikorski, also spoke about the ongoing violence in Syria, saying he was pleased by the proposal for a UN declaration against the Syrian regime.

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