Tuesday, October 16, 2012
PARIS (AP) French police have arrested three people in an investigation of suspects plotting to travel to conflict zones in Yemen and Somalia to join jihadist fighters.
The arrests in Drancy north of Paris come about a week after French authorities dismantled a suspected jihadist cell believed to recruit militants to fight in Syria.
Agnes Thibault-Lecuivre, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor's office, said Tuesday's arrests had no connection to the Syria recruitment cell. She said Tuesday's roundup of the suspects aged 23 to 25 were the first arrests under a preliminary investigation begun by Paris prosecutors in May over a possible link to Yemen and Somalia.
Under French anti-terrorism law, the three can be held up to 96 hours before facing preliminary charges or being released.