Etienne Cardiles’ marriage to the late Xavier Jugelé is attended by Paris mayor Hidalgo and former president Hollande

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

The partner of a police officer killed by a gunman on Champs-Élysées in Paris in April has married him posthumously, Le Parisien has reported.

The city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, and the former French president François Hollande attended the wedding on Tuesday of Etienne Cardiles to the late Xavier Jugelé.

Jugelé, 37, was shot dead on 20 April while on duty three days before the first round of France’s presidential election.

He had campaigned for LGBT rights within the police service.

At a moving remembrance ceremony led by Hollande on 25 April, Cardiles said the killer would “not have my hatred”, echoing the words of the husband of a victim of the November 2015 attacks in Paris.

“I have no hatred, Xavier, because it is not like you and does not fit with what made your heart beat nor what made you a guardian of the peace,” Cardiles said.

Jugelé was the fifth police officer killed in terrorist attacks that have claimed more than 230 lives across France since January 2015.

Hollande posthumously made him a knight of the Legion of Honour, one of France’s highest honours.

Shortly after Jugelé’s death it emerged that he had been among the first responders to the attack on the Bataclan theatre in Paris in November 2015 , where gunmen killed 90 concertgoers.

He returned to the venue a year later when it reopened for a concert by the British singer Sting, telling a BBC interviewer at the time that he wanted “to celebrate life and say ‘no’ to terrorism”.