 French police have arrested a suspected radical, expelled on Tuesday from Syria, and placed him under formal judicial investigation, legal sources said Saturday. Boubaker el-Hakim, 21, who is of Tunisian origin and comes from eastern Paris, is the brother of Redouane, 19, who was killed in Iraq in July 2004.
| Even better. The revolving door approach doesn't work when you're dead... |
He is under investigation for "conspiracy relating to a terrorist enterprise" by anti-terrorist judge Jean-Francois Ricard, in particular in respect of links with Iraq. Police say he knew Farid Benyettou, detained in Paris in January and alleged to be the spritual leader and recruiter of a group of young Parisians seeking to carry out holy war in Iraq. Hakim is known to have visited Syria in 2002 to study Islam and to have returned the following year at the time of the overthrow of Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. In 2004 he made a further visit but was arrested in September while trying to cross into Iraq without a passport. In addition to Hakim's brother, two young Frenchmen who attended a mosque in eastern Paris regularly visited by Hakim are known to have died fighting in Iraq.
| And I'm sure we all hope that their exit from this vale of tears was sufficiently spectacular and painful... |
|