Man with ties to terrorists arrested in France, another charged with harboring suspected ringleader
PARIS
A man has been jailed after a police raid on his home in a tiny village in the Pyrenees region.
A judicial police official said that Olivier Corel was detained for questioning on Tuesday after the raid on his home by 70 police. The raid in Artigat was part of stepped-up measures under a state of emergency declared in the wake of Nov. 13 attacks in Paris.
The judicial official said that Corel was jailed for illegal detention of a hunting rifle.
Authorities believe Corel lodged Fabien Clain, reported to have been the voice on an Islamic State French-language claim of responsibility for the Paris attacks. Clain was convicted in 2009 for involvement in a network sending extremist fighters to Iraq.
Corel is also believed to have figured in the religious life of Frenchman Mohammed Merah, who killed a rabbi, three children at a Jewish school and three paratroopers in southern France in 2012.
Earlier today, the man who housed a suspected ringleader of the Nov. 13 Paris attacks was charged with terrorism-related offences.
Jawad Bendaoud, 29, is the first person suspected of a direct link to the attackers to be charged in connection with the attacks.
The prosecutor's office said he was charged with criminal association and detention of incendiary or explosive substances linked to a terrorist enterprise.
He is being held, but appealing for his freedom.
Bendaoud acknowledged in a television interview giving shelter to two people from Belgium in his home in Saint-Denis but said he didn't know who they were or what they planned. He told BFM television "I didn't know they were terrorists. I was asked to do a favor. I did a favor, sir."