French authorities put a man under formal investigation
Saturday, saying they suspected the 31-year-old of supporting Toulouse gunman
Mohammed Merah, who killed a rabbi and three children outside a Jewish school
last year.
The man is thought to have helped Merah plan the shooting
spree, providing him with weapons and a bullet proof vest, a judicial source
said, according to a Reuters report.
On March 19, 2012, Merah, a 23-year-old jihadist fanatic who
claimed links to al-Qaeda, gunned down Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, 30, along with
his two young sons, Aryeh and Gavriel. He also killed Miriam Monsonego, the
8-year-old daughter of Yaacov Monsonego, director of the Ozar HaTorah school,
which has since changed its name to Ohr HaTorah.
Merah also killed three paratroopers in two separate
shooting attacks in the week before he targeted the school.
He was gunned down in a shootout with French police two days
after the incident. French media sources said at the time that he spent time
training on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, where he adopted extremist
ideology.
The judicial source said the man was being probed on
suspicion of involvement in a terror ring, as well as passing weapons and being
an accomplice to the killings.
A formal investigation means police have serious evidence
that the man was involved.
On Tuesday, French police arrested six people in connection
with the attacks, four in Toulouse and two in Paris.
Most of the people arrested were related by marriage to
Merah, and police hoped they could help shed light on where the killer received
the money to purchase his firearms.
In the months since the attacks, French authorities have
arrested and released several people and questioned dozens in connection with
the shootings.
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