Husband writes defiant tribute to his wife killed in Bataclan massacre

A Frenchman whose wife was killed in the Bataclan massacre has written a defiant message to the gunmen and a touching tribute to his wife. Antoine Leiris, who has a 17-month-old son, has told the attackers they "will not have my hatred". Gunmen stormed the Bataclan venue on Friday during an Eagles of Death Metal concert and fired into the crowd, killing 89 people. The Parisian met his wife 12 years ago and described her as an "exceptional being".

He wrote online:

"On Friday night you stole away the life of an exceptional being, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hatred. I do not know who you are and I don’t want to know, you are dead souls.

If the God for whom you kill so blindly made us in His image, each bullet in my wife’s body would have been a wound in His heart.

We are only two, my son and I, but we are more powerful than all the world's armies... every day of his life this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom."

Mr Leiris said he will not give the gunmen "the gift of hating" them.

"Therefore I will not give you the gift of hating you. You have obviously sought it but responding to hatred with anger would be to give in to the same ignorance that that has made you what you are. You want me to be afraid, to cast a mistrustful eye on my fellow citizens, to sacrifice my freedom for security. Lost. Same player, same game."

He said he will give the attackers the "tiny victory" of "being devastated with grief" but it will be short-term and she will "join us every day".

"I saw her this morning. Finally, after nights and days of waiting. She was just as beautiful as she was when she left on Friday evening, as beautiful as when I fell madly in love with her more than 12 years ago.

Of course I'm devasted with grief, I will give you that tiny victory, but this will be a short-term grief. I know that she will join us every day and that we will find each other again in a paradise of free souls which you will never have access to.

We are only two, my son and I, but we are more powerful than all the world's armies. In any case, I have no more time to waste on you, I need to get back to Melvil who is waking up from his afternoon nap. He’s just 17 months old; he’ll eat his snack like every day, and then we’re going to play like we do every day; and every day of his life this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom. Because you don’t have his hatred either."    (ITV Report)

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View the original ITV report