December 4, 2012
Couple suspected of aiding Toulouse killer Merah taken into custody
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Frame grab of Mohamed Merah from a video broadcast March 21 by France 2 .Photo by REUTERS/France 2 Television/Handout
A man and a woman in the Toulouse area were arrested on suspicion that they helped Mohammed Merah "commit crimes" that may have included the murder of four Jews.
According to L'Express, a French daily, French authorities arrested the two on Tuesday morning. Reports in the French media said there was no use of force.
The French news service AFP named one of the suspects as Charles Mencarelli and reported that he had been arrested in Albi, about 45 miles northeast of Toulouse. AFP described Mencarelli as not having a permanent address. His life partner was arrested at her home in Toulouse, according to the report.
The pair will be brought for arraignment within 96 hours of their arrest, according to L’Express, during which time they will be interrogated about their links with Merah. They are not suspected of belonging to a jihadist network, an unnamed police source told L’Express.
Merah, a 23-year-old radical Muslim, killed a rabbi and three children in a pre-planned attack on the Otzar Hatorah Jewish school in Toulouse on March 19. The slayings came a few days after Merah gunned down three French soldiers in two drive-by shootings from a scooter near Toulouse. He was shot dead on March 22 by police as they stormed his home.
Tuesday's arrests were headed by France’s domestic intelligence service, DCRI, and the country’s top SWAT team, the anti-terrorist SDAT unit.
