paris:- The pregnant girlfriend of a french soldier killed in a dramatic gun rampage will wed her partne posthumously, a family lawyer said on saturday.

Paratrooper Abel chenouf was shot deadearlier this month at a cash machine in southern France, one of a series of killings blamed on 24-year old Islamist fanatic Mohamed Merah. lawyer Gilbert Collard said that Chennouf’s pregnant girlfriend 21-year old caroline Monet is applying for permission to get married to her late partner in a few week’s time. Such ceremonies are unusual but unheard of in France where the law allowsposthumous marriages in cases where a fiance dies before the wedding. The law states that such wedding can only be approvedby the French president “in grave circumtances”

“I’ve already had it done twice for policemen’s girlfriends,” he sad .” it’s a really moving ceremony with an empty chair representing the dead spouse.” Collard said the official request was being sent out on saturday , but that he’d already received the nod from the president’s office adding that hopefully the ceremony will let the child have a father. Meanwhile Merah’s brother during a police interrogation boasted that he is “proud” of his sibling’s actions, police said.