PARIS, March 27 (Reuters) - French judges placed the 18-year old girlfriend of the Islamist gunman who killed four people in southern France last week under formal investigation, a judicial source said on Tuesday.

Named only as Marine P, Redouane Lakdim's partner is being investigated for terrorist conspiracy, the source said. She remains in temporary custody.

Under the French legal system, being "placed under investigation" is a step judicial investigators can take if they have serious grounds for suspecting an offence. It often but not always leads to trial.

Ladkim was shot dead by security forces at the scene. </s> Paris: A French prosecutor said the girlfriend of an attacker who killed hostages in a supermarket in southern France last week was a radicalised convert to Islam and that she shouted "Allahu akbar," or "God is Great," when she was arrested.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said the 18-year-old woman "shows all signs of radicalisation."

She was taken into custody hours after the 25-year-old Morocco-born gunman, Radouane Lakdim, killed four people on Friday before being killed by police who stormed the supermarket in Trebes.

The teenager told investigators that she converted to Islam when she was 16. She denied "having been informed and associated with the deadly project of her boyfriend," Molins said during a news conference.

But Molins said she posted online a Koran verse "indicating that infidels were promised to hell" just a few hours before the attacks. </s> PARIS - French prosecutors placed the 18-year old girlfriend of the Islamist gunman who killed four people in southern France last week under formal investigation, the prosecutor's office said in a statement on Tuesday.



Named only as Marine P, Redouane Lakdim's partner is being investigated for terrorist conspiracy, the prosecutor's office said. She remains in temporary custody.



In French legal jargon, being "placed under investigation" is a step judicial investigators can take if they have serious grounds for suspecting an offence. It often but not always leads to trial. </s> SALE, Morocco (AP) — The latest on the Islamic extremist attack in southern France (all times local):

The head of Morocco's counterterrorism agency is concerned that France never alerted his country about the extremist behavior of the French-Moroccan gunman who carried out a deadly supermarket attack in southern France.

French authorities had monitored attacker Radouane Lakdim before the attack Friday, which killed four people. But the director of Morocco's Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations told The Associated Press on Tuesday that "we were not notified" about Lakdim's background.

Normally French authorities share information on radicalized dual nationals, and Abdelhak Khiame calls the absence of communication an apparent "misunderstanding."

He says that since the attack, his agency has investigated Lakdim's family members in Morocco but has found no signs of radicalism. He says Lakdim's last visit to Morocco was in 2012 and didn't raise any suspicions.

Khiame's agency is considered like Morocco's FBI and it has helped European authorities investigate terrorism suspects in the past.

The girlfriend of an attacker who killed four people and took hostages in a French supermarket has been given preliminary terrorism charges in the investigation.

A French judicial official says the woman, identified only as Marine P., is in custody pending a hearing on whether to release her during the investigation.

The official says she was given preliminary charges Tuesday of association with terrorist criminals planning to prepare attacks. The official was not authorized to publicly discuss the investigation and insisted on speaking anonymously.

Attacker Radouane Lakdim was killed by police after his rampage Friday. Authorities said he claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group.

French authorities say a 17-year-old male friend of an attacker who killed hostages in a supermarket in southern France last week has been released uncharged from custody.

The Paris prosecutor's office said the youth was freed Tuesday "in the absence of incriminating elements at this stage."

A witness told investigators the young man was a "very good friend" of 25-year-old gunman Radouane Lakdim and was under his religious influence.

The youth, who denied any involvement in the attacks during his questioning, had been in custody since hours after Lakdim killed four people in a rampage Friday before being killed by police who stormed the supermarket in Trebes.

After being questioned by police, Lakdim's girlfriend was to face French investigating judges later Tuesday night. The prosecutor's office has asked them to charge her with criminal terrorist association.

French lawmakers have paid tribute to the victims of an Islamic extremist attack at a supermarket in southern France.

Lawmakers at the National Assembly in Paris observed a minute of silence Tuesday for the four people who died in Friday's attack.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said since January 2015, French intelligence services have thwarted 51 attacks. In addition, 17 other attacks have failed and 11 have taken place.

He says "this is a difficult combat we will have to fight, a terrible combat, a hand-to-hand struggle, in which we will have successes — we had some — and in which we might have failures."

A national memorial is being held Wednesday in Paris to honor Lt-Col. Arnaud Beltrame, the officer who lost his life after swapping himself with a hostage.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. </s> The Latest on the Islamic attack in southern France (all times local):

French authorities say a 17-year-old male friend of an attacker who killed hostages in a supermarket in southern France last week has been released uncharged from custody.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said the youth was freed Tuesday “in the absence of incriminating elements at this stage.”

A witness told investigators the young man was a “very good friend” of 25-year-old gunman Radouane Lakdim and was under his religious influence.

The youth, who denied any involvement in the attacks during his questioning, had been in custody since hours after Lakdim killed four people in a rampage Friday before being killed by police who stormed the supermarket in Trebes.

After being questioned by police, Lakdim’s girlfriend was to face French investigating judges later Tuesday night. The prosecutor’s office has asked them to charge her with criminal terrorist association.

French lawmakers have paid tribute to the victims of an Islamic extremist attack at a supermarket in southern France.

Lawmakers at the National Assembly in Paris observed a minute of silence Tuesday for the four people who died in Friday’s attack.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said since January 2015, French intelligence services have thwarted 51 attacks. In addition, 17 other attacks have failed and 11 have taken place.

He says “this is a difficult combat we will have to fight, a terrible combat, a hand-to-hand struggle, in which we will have successes — we had some — and in which we might have failures.”

A national memorial is being held Wednesday in Paris to honor Lt-Col. Arnaud Beltrame, the officer who lost his life after swapping himself with a hostage. </s> French gendarmerie four star general Richard Lizurey, head of DGGN (Direction Générale de la Gendarmerie Nationale), speaks to journalists outside the Gendarmerie Nationale offices in Carcassonne, on March 25, 2018. — AFP picPARIS, March 27 — French investigators yesterday quizzed the radicalised girlfriend of the Islamist gunman who shot dead four people last week in southern France, including a heroic policeman killed after taking the place of a hostage.

Policeman Arnaud Beltrame was the fourth person killed during Radouane Lakdim’s rampage in the towns of Carcassonne and Trebes that also left three people injured.

Beltrame’s mother Nicole said she was not surprised that her 44-year-old son offered to be swapped for a woman held hostage by Lakdim at a supermarket in the sleepy town of Trebes.

“I know Arnaud: loyal, altruistic, and since he was small, working for other people, committed to the country,” she said, adding the practising Catholic would have wanted his act to make people “a bit more tolerant”.

Lakdim, a 25-year-old Moroccan-born French national who was on a watchlist of suspected extremists, also killed a butcher and an elderly shopper when he stormed the Super U supermarket after firing at police and shooting dead a man when hijacking a car in Carcassonne.

During the siege he said he was acting on behalf of the Islamic State group and demanded the release of Salah Abdeslam, the prime suspect in the November 2015 Paris terror attacks.

Yesterday, police continued to question his 18-year-old girlfriend, who converted to Islam at 16 and had also been on the watchlist of potential radicals.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters that she shouted Allahu Akbar (God is greatest) while in custody, but denied any prior knowledge of Lakdim’s attack plans.

A 17-year-old man described as a friend of Lakdim’s who was under his sway, is also in custody over the attack.

He too denies any involvement, Molins said.

Under France’s anti-terrorism laws, the two suspects can be held for up to 96 hours without charge.

Over 200 officers are probing the latest in a string of jihadist attacks that have claimed the lives of over 240 people around France since January 2015.

President Emmanuel Macron will lead a national commemoration to Beltrame at Invalides military museum in Paris on Wednesday, his office said.

Pope Francis, in a message to the Catholic Church in Carcassonne, saluted “the generous and heroic gesture of Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, who gave his life in trying to protect others.”

Richard Lizurey, the head of France’s gendarmes police service, said Beltrame took the initiative to swap places with a woman being used by Lakdim as a human shield at the Super U supermarket in Trebes.

Beltrame’s widow Marielle told the Christian weekly La Vie that his actions were “the act of a gendarme and of a Christian.”

Lakdim came to France with his family in 1992 as an infant and gained citizenship 12 years later.

He dabbled in drugs and petty crime and in 2016 spent a month in prison but prison authorities “detected no visible sign of radicalisation”, Molins said.

But investigators have found notes at his home in Carcassonne referring to the Islamic State group, a legal source said, including a handwritten letter in which he claimed allegiance to the jihadists.

Armed with a gun, knife and homemade explosive devices, he remained holed up for over two hours at the Super U supermarket with Beltrame, who took the place of a female hostage.

Beltrame was fatally stabbed in the throat by Lakdim shortly before police stormed the store, ending the siege.

Hundreds of mourners packed a church service Sunday for the victims of France’s latest Islamist attack.

Asked if she felt hatred towards Lakdim, Beltrame’s mother replied: “Not at all. I feel indifference and the greatest sense of contempt.”

She also suggested not even talking about him, “not showing his photo. We should show the photos of heroes, not killers and monsters.” — AFP </s> Police investigating 18-year-old, known as Marine, who had been on a terrorism watchlist

The 18-year-old girlfriend of a gunman who claimed allegiance to Islamic State before killing four 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, appeared before judges on Monday, and is under investigation for conspiring with terrorists with a view to carrying out attacks. She remains in temporary police custody.



The state prosecutor François Molins said that – like the 25-year-old gunman, Radouane Lakdim – she had been on a watchlist for potential extremists.

Marine, who had converted to Islam aged 16, had shouted Allahu Akbar when police arrested her, the prosecutor said. Her phone 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 radicalisation.

Marine, who lived with her parents, was arrested within hours of the attacks committed on Friday in Carcassonne and nearby Trèbes in southern France.

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 towards 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 Trèbes, running in with a semi-automatic pistol, a hunting knife and three homemade explosives shouting that he was a soldier from Islamic State.

He first shot dead a supermarket butcher and then a pensioner at the tills. After police entered the store, the gendarme Lt-Col 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. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, will lead a national commemoration for Beltrame on Wednesday.

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 AFP. Lakdim was sent a letter in March asking him to arrange a face-to-face meeting with agents from France’s domestic intelligence agency, DGSI. Shortly after he was sent the letter, he carried out the attacks.

A 17-year-old friend of Lakdim’s who had been questioned was released on Monday “due to the absence of incriminating evidence at this stage”, prosecutors said. </s> PARIS (AP) — A French prosecutor said Monday the girlfriend of an attacker who killed hostages in a supermarket in southern France last week is a radicalized convert to Islam and that she shouted "Allahu akbar," or "God is Great," when she was arrested.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said the 18-year-old woman "shows all signs of radicalization."

She was taken into custody hours after the 25-year-old Morocco-born gunman, Radouane Lakdim, killed four people on Friday before being killed by police who stormed the supermarket in Trebes.

The woman told investigators that she converted to Islam when she was 16. She denied "having been informed and associated with the deadly project of her boyfriend," Molins said during a news conference.

But Molins said the girl posted online a Quran verse "indicating that infidels were promised to hell" just a few hours before the attacks.

On Friday, Lakdim carried out the attacks in Carcassonne and Trebes after dropping his younger sister at school in the morning, Molins said.

The Islamic State group claimed that the attacker was answering its call to target nations in the U.S.-led coalition fighting IS militants in Syria and Iraq.

A police officer, Lt. Col. Arnaud Beltrame, was killed after swapping himself with a hostage being held by Lakdim in the supermarket.

Three people, including Beltrame, were killed in the supermarket in Trebes while a fourth person was killed earlier during a carjacking in the nearby city of Carcassonne.

When Beltrame entered the supermarket during the hostage situation, he started a negotiation with Lakdim, who had found shelter in the store's vault with the hostage.

"He (Beltrame) raised his hands in the air, dropped his weapon and asked to take the place of the person taken hostage," Molins said.

A few minutes after Beltrame entered the vault and offered himself as a hostage, Lakdim released the woman he was holding.

Beltrame then contacted his colleagues to ask them to leave the premises. He added the attacker was demanding the release of Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving assailant of the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead.

Beltrame surreptitiously left his cellphone on so that police outside could hear what was going on inside the supermarket. Molins said that several explosive devices were placed around the supermarket by Lakdim and the attacker threatened to set them off.

Elite police units stormed the store after hearing gunshots. They killed Lakdim and found their Beltrame seriously wounded.

Beltrame died in a local hospital on Saturday from several stab wounds "including a very severe injury in the trachea and larynx," Molins said.

The prosecutor said Lakdim arrived in France with his family in 1992 soon after he was born in Morocco.

Both a French and Moroccan national at first, he was then naturalized as a French citizen in 2004 when he was 12, following his father's naturalization.

Molins said Lakdim had been listed on a police register for radicalized people since 2014 because of its suspected links with the local Salafist circles. He was still under an ongoing and effective intelligence monitoring in the days leading up to the attacks, the prosecutor said.

But the surveillance didn't allow police to detect any warning signs that he was going to commit a violent action or any intention to go to Iraq or Syria, Molins said. When he was jailed in 2016, the prison administration noticed no visible sign of radicalization.

In addition to the 18-year-old woman, a 17-year-old male has also been in custody since Friday night. The second suspect was a "very good friend" of Lakdim and was under his religious influence, a witness told investigators.

He also denied any involvement in the preparation of the attacks during his questioning, Molins said.

A national memorial ceremony for Beltrame will be held Wednesday in the main courtyard of the Invalides monument, home to Napoleon's tomb, in the presence of Beltrame's family and the families of other victims of the attack.

French President Emmanuel Macron will attend and address the event. </s> PARIS: Anti-terrorist police on Friday arrested four people in southern France, including a 16-year-old girl, who were suspected of preparing an “imminent” attack linked to the Islamic State (IS) group.

The arrests in Montpellier and the small nearby town of Marseillan “foiled a plot to carry out an imminent attack on French soil,” Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said in a statement.

Police sources told AFP the four were arrested after buying acetone, a highly flammable liquid that can be used to make bombs.

The 16-year-old girl had recorded a video in which she pledges allegiance to the IS extremists, sources close to the case told AFP. The other suspects were all men, aged 20, 26 and 33.

“It seems that they intended to go through with it and to make several explosive devices,” one source told AFP, asking not to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the media.

Searches turned up small amounts of TATP, the homemade explosive used by IS jihadists in attacks on Paris and Brussels, the source said.

The teenaged girl had used social media to try to find ways of travelling to Syria to join up with the jihadists and had posted her video pledging allegiance to IS on February 8, the security sources said.

The 20-year-old man, her alleged mentor, had been under surveillance and is suspected of planning to blow himself up, a source said.

France remains on high alert after a wave of attacks that began two years ago, claiming more than 200 lives.

Last week, a machete-wielding attacker was shot and wounded outside the Louvre museum in Paris while shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest) after he lunged at a group of soldiers.

A 29-year-old Egyptian man, Abdallah El-Hamahmy, was formally charged with attempted murder and terrorist activity on Friday having recovered sufficiently in hospital to face a judge.

Investigators are still trying to establish whether he had any link to a jihadist group.

French authorities say they have foiled 13 plots involving more than 30 individuals, including women and minors, since a truck massacre in the Riviera city of Nice last July that claimed 86 lives.

Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said Friday that hundreds of arrests have been made since the start of 2016.

“These individuals were either preparing to carry out attacks or were linked to terrorist groups ordering attacks,” Cazeneuve said during a visit to La Souterraine, in central France.

“We face an extremely high terrorist threat that requires us to take measures to assure the protection of our citizens at all times,” he said.

Three female jihadists were arrested in September after the discovery of gas cylinders in a car near Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral.

In November, police broke up a terror ring plotting an attack in France, jailing four Frenchmen and a Moroccan who had pledged allegiance to the IS.

France, one of the most active members of the US-led coalition fighting the Sunni extremist group, has been the worst hit among European countries targeted by attacks claimed or inspired by IS.

The French parliament voted in December to extend a national state of emergency until July 15, after this year’s presidential and parliamentary elections.

It was the fifth extension of the state of emergency, which gives police extended powers of search and arrest.

Security and fears about Islamist extremism are key issues ahead of the two-round presidential election in April and May. – AFP </s> Trebes, France (AP) — A gun-wielding extremist went on a rampage Friday in a quiet corner of southern France, killing three people as he hijacked a car, opened fire on police and took hostages in a supermarket, where panicked shoppers hid in a meat locker or ran through the aisles.

After an hours-long standoff, the 25-year-old attacker was slain as elite police forces stormed the market. They were aided by a heroic police officer who had offered himself up in a hostage swap and suffered life-threatening wounds as a result — one of 16 people injured in the day’s violence.

The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack near Carcassonne, a medieval city beloved by tourists, and the town of Trebes. It was the deadliest attack in France since Emmanuel Macron became president last May.

The officer who volunteered to take the place a female hostage was identified as Col. Arnaud Beltrame. He managed to surreptitiously leave his cellphone on so that police outside could hear what was going on inside the supermarket. Officials said once they heard shots inside the market they decided to storm it.

A police official who was not authorized to be publicly identified confirmed the officer’s identity to The Associated Press.

Macron said investigators will focus on establishing how the gunman, identified by prosecutors as Moroccan-born Redouane Lakdim, got his weapon, and how he became radicalized.

On Friday night, authorities searched a vehicle and a building in central Carcassonne.

Lakdim was known to police for petty crime and drug-dealing. But he was also under surveillance and since 2014 was on the so-called “Fiche S” list, a government register of individuals suspected of being radicalized but who have yet to perform acts of terrorism.

Despite this, Paris prosecutor Francois Molins there was “no warning sign” that Lakdim would carry out an extremist attack.

A woman close to Lakdim was taken into custody over alleged links with a terrorist enterprise, Molins said. He did not identify her.

The four-hour drama began at 10:13 a.m. when Lakdim hijacked a car near Carcassonne, killing one person in the car and wounding the other, the prosecutor said.

Lakdim then fired six shots at police officers who were on their way back from jogging near Carcassonne, said Yves Lefebvre, secretary general of SGP Police-FO police union. The police were wearing athletic clothes with police insignia. One officer was hit in the shoulder, but the injury was not serious, Lefebvre said.

Lakdim then went to a Super U supermarket in nearby Trebes, 60 miles (100 kilometers) southeast of Toulouse, shooting and killing two people in the market and taking an unknown number of hostages. Special police units converged on the scene while authorities blocked roads and urged residents to stay away.

He shouted “Allahu akbar! (God is great)” and said he was a “soldier of the Islamic State” as he entered the Super U, where about 50 people were inside, Molins said.

“We heard an explosion — well, several explosions,” shopper Christian Guibbert told reporters. “I went to see what was happening and I saw a man lying on the floor and another person, very agitated, who had a gun in one hand and a knife in the other.”

Guibbert said he led his wife and sister-in-law and nearby customers into the meat locker. Then he went back to see where the assailant was and called police to describe the situation.

“At that moment, he (the gunman) ran after me. Of course I left, I lost him and when I turned around he wasn’t there anymore. I took an emergency door and saw the police arrive,” Guibbert said.

Another witness, an employee of the supermarket’s butcher department identified only by his first name, Jacky, told Europe 1 radio he “heard people shouting and a big ‘boom.'”

“It was a gunshot,” he said. “Then a second gunshot. After that, my colleagues came toward me saying: ‘Come on Jacky, we need to leave! There’s someone who’s firing shots, he’s shouting “Allahu akbar,” and he’s shot people and he’s shooting at everything.'”

He said they left using an emergency exit behind the butcher’s stall and they ran across the courtyard.

“We also helped people get out,” he said.

During the standoff, Lakdim requested the release of Salah Abdeslam, the sole surviving assailant of the Nov. 13, 2015, attacks in Paris that left 130 people dead. The interior minister suggested, however, that Abdeslam’s release wasn’t a key motive for the attack.

The IS-linked Aamaq news agency said the attacker was responding to the group’s calls to target countries in the U.S.-led coalition carrying out airstrikes against IS militants in Syria and Iraq since 2014. France has been repeatedly targeted because of its participation.

Both Interior Minister Gerard Collomb and Molins praised Beltrame, who Molins said “at the risk of his life took the choice to take the place of the hostages.”

The gunman shot Beltrame several times after threatening to blow up the supermarket if police entered, Molins added.

BFM television said Beltrame recently took part in a training exercise simulating a terrorist attack.

As the supermarket standoff reached a crescendo about 2:20 p.m., police heard gunshots inside the building and decided that elite forces had to storm it. Lakdim was killed and two other officers were wounded during the assault, Collomb said.

“He acted alone, there was no one else but him,” he added.

Macron rushed back from an EU summit in Brussels to Paris, where counterterrorism investigators took over the investigation. France has been on high alert since a series of extremist attacks in 2015 and 2016 that killed more than 200 people.

While France hasn’t had an attack in several months, “the threat remains high,” Macron said, describing ongoing risks from “several individuals who radicalized themselves.”

Macron pushed through a tough counterterrorism law last year that gives police extra powers to conduct searches and hold people under house arrest.

In Brussels, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appeared with Macron and said, “When it comes to terrorist threats, we stand by France.”

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo said the Eiffel Tower would turn its lights off at midnight in tribute to the victims.

At the national stadium outside Paris, 80,000 soccer fans and the national teams of France and Colombia observed a minute of silence Friday night to honor those killed in the attacks earlier in the day. Poignantly, the stadium itself was the site of bloodshed in the deadly Paris attacks in 2015.
In regards to the March 23 attack that killed four people, French state prosecutor François Molins charges attacker Radouane Lakdim's 18-year-old girlfriend with terrorist conspiracy.