Monday, 9 March 2015

French policewoman among four arrested over links to Paris kosher deli hostage-taker

The two officials said one man who was detained had ties to Amedy Coulibaly (pictured)

Four people, including a policewoman, have been arrested over links to the attacks that terrorised Paris earlier this year, French police and security officials have said.
The two officials said one man who was detained had ties to Amedy Coulibaly, the gunman who killed a policewoman on January 8 and then four more people at a kosher supermarket on January 9 before being killed by security forces.

They added that the detained man's ex-girlfriend, a policewoman who was suspended after peeking into his criminal file, was also in custody.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing, had no details about the two others. 
It has been claimed the policewoman worked at Fort de Rosny-sous-Bois, in north east Paris, which is the location of a police intelligence centre.
Le Figaro reported that she was suspended from her duties in early February.
Coulibaly shot dead an unarmed policewoman on January 8, before taking hostages at a Jewish supermarket in Paris the following day.
That siege ended after he killed a further four people, before police stormed the building and killed him in a blaze of bullets.
During the siege, Coulibaly had told French media that he had 'synchronized' the attacks with the Charlie Hebdo killers, but failed to provide any further details.
Detectives also allegedly discovered that Coulibaly filmed his attack on his assault on the kosher supermarket with a high-tech GoPro camera attached to his chest.
It is understood the footage was then sent via internet from the hostage scene, but it has not been posted since.
No-one besides three dead gunmen have been linked directly to the January 7 - 9 attacks at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and the market, which left 20 people dead, including the gunmen. 
Last month Islamic State published what it described as an interview with Coulibaly's widow, Hayat Boumeddiene, claiming for the first time she was among extremist fighters.
Boumeddiene is believed to have fled to Syria not long before her husband carried out the shocking attacks across Paris.
Coulibaly's attacks coincided with the masscare at the Charlie Hebdo offices perpetrated by the Kouachi brothers Said and Cherif.
The two arrived at the satirical magazine's offices on the morning of January 7 and forced their way inside the building. Claiming to act in revenge for the publication's perceived mockery of the Prophet Mohammed, they murdered 11 people.
After fleeing north, the following day they were involved in a standoff with police in which they were both killed.
Nobody with ties to the Kouachi brothers is in custody or has been formally sought since the attacks.

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