The 18-year-old girlfriend of a gunman who claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group before killing four people in a shooting spree and supermarket hostage-taking in southern France has been placed under formal investigation for terrorist conspiracy.
The woman, named in the media as Marine, on Monday appeared before judges and is under investigation for conspiring with terrorists with a view to carrying out attacks. She remains in temporary police custody.
Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said that — like the 25-year-old gunman, Radouane Lakdim — she had been on a watch list for potential extremists.
Photo: AFP
Marine, who had converted to Islam at the age of 16, had shouted “Allahu Akbar” when police arrested her, the prosecutor said.
Her telephone contact with Lakdim had stopped in January, but she is thought to have continued talking to him on secure apps.
The morning of the attacks, she had posted a message on social media saying that unbelievers were promised to hell, Molins said.
She denied being aware of or associated with the attacks.
Her sister told French television that she had shown no signs of radicalization.
Marine, who lived with her parents, was arrested within hours of the attacks on Friday in Carcassonne and nearby Trebes.
Lakdim, who was born in Morocco, but moved to France as a baby and had French nationality since the age of 12, first shot dead a car passenger in Carcassonne on Friday morning, injuring the driver and stealing the car. He then drove toward a police barracks and shot at four officers out for a jog, seriously injuring one of them.
Next he targeted the Super U supermarket in nearby Trebes, running in with a semi-automatic pistol, a hunting knife and three homemade explosives shouting that he was a soldier from the Islamic State group.
He shot dead a supermarket butcher and then a pensioner at the tills. After police entered the store, the gendarme Lieutenant Colonel Arnaud Beltrame offered to swap places with a hostage who Lakdim was holding with a gun to her neck as a human shield.
When Lakdim accepted, Beltrame — who had surrendered his police weapon — was held for over three hours before police stormed when they heard shots.
Beltrame, who had suffered bullet wounds to the body, died later from severe knife wounds across the neck.
French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday lead a national commemoration for Beltrame.
Lakdim was shot dead by police at the scene. He had been on a list of suspected extremists since 2014 and had been under surveillance.
Earlier this month, he had been summoned by anti-terror police for questioning, a police source told reporters.
Lakdim this month was sent a letter asking him to arrange a face-to-face meeting with agents from the French General Directorate for Internal Security.
Shortly after he was sent the letter, he carried out the attacks.
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