Nikolaos Kakavelakis Lyon French priest shot by lover’s jealous husband outside church makes miracle recovery, identifies shooter.
A French priest has survived an attempt on his life after having been shot at by his ‘lover’s’ jealous husband according to prosecutors.
Nikolaos Kakavelakis, 52, was shot twice in the chest at point-blank range on Oct. 31 as he locked up his Greek Orthodox church in Lyon, sparking initial fears it was part of escalating terrorism in the European nation.
But the married father of two young sons, a four year old and one year old, ‘miraculously’ came out of a coma Wednesday — and told investigators he was attacked because of an illicit affair, according to France’s Le Figaro.
A 40-year-old man was arrested and confessed to the shooting, prosecutors told Le Parisien.
The suspect, only identified as Giorgi P., ‘turns out to be the husband of a woman who was having an affair with the victim,’ prosecutors reportedly said in a statement of his 35-year-old Russian wife named Lela K.
Left priest for dead
He insisted he did not intend to kill the priest when he shot at him with a sawn-off shotgun that he later discarded.
The gunman was identified as a 40-year-old man of Georgian nationality who lives close to the Greek Orthodox Church in the 7th arrondissement of Lyon.
He has admitted gunning Father Kakavelakis down while he was locking his church up, and having left the priest for dead.
Had tended resignation last month
The suspect ran to his home nearby, and believed he might have got away with the crime, until Father Kakavelakis made a miracle recovery.
The suspect was arrested at his home on Friday, and had now made a ‘full confession’, according to French prosecutors. His wife was arrested at the same time, he added.
Both the gunman and the man’s wife are now in custody.
Father Kakavelakis, a Greek national who had been a priest in Lyon for the past decade, had resigned from his post last month, and was working out a notice period. It wasn’t immediately known if the church had been aware of the church leader’s indiscretions.
