Two placed under investigation for links to Paris killings

PARIS Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:24pm EDT

People hold a placard which reads ''I am Charlie Copenhagen'' as they gather to pay tribute outside the Danish embassy in Paris February 16, 2015. REUTERS/Charles Platiau

People hold a placard which reads ''I am Charlie Copenhagen'' as they gather to pay tribute outside the Danish embassy in Paris February 16, 2015.

Credit: Reuters/Charles Platiau

PARIS (Reuters) - Two suspects have been placed under formal investigation by French magistrates for alleged links to the Paris attacks of January, the Paris prosecutors' office said in a statement on Friday.

Named only as Amar R., 33, and Said M., 25, the two men had been detained for questioning since Monday along with two other people, a man and a woman, who were released earlier this week, the prosecutors said.

In French law, the opening of a formal investigation means that magistrates have grounds for suspicion but does not necessarily mean that a trial will result.

Amar R. met in prison and exchanged over 600 text messages with Amedy Coulibaly, one of the perpetrators of the January attacks in which 17 people were killed at French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and a Jewish supermarket.

Said M.'s DNA was found on a taser electroshock weapon retrieved from the Paris foodstore where Coulibaly was killed by French security forces after a siege that claimed the lives of four hostages.

(Reporting by Chine Labbe; writing by Michel Rose; editing by Mark John)
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