Prosecutor wants 2 charged over French police attack

PARIS – A French prosecutor asked that two suspects with links to the killer of two French police officials earlier this week be handed preliminary terrorism charges Saturday connected to the murders.

There was a morning deadline to release Charaf-Din Aberouz and Saad Rajraji or pursue charges, and the prosecutor moved to prolong their detention.

The decision to charge the suspects will be technically validated by an anti-terrorism judge later Saturday.

Both individuals, aged 27 and 29, had been convicted along with the police killer, Larossi Abballa, in September 2013 for their roles in a jihadi network on the Pakistan-Afghan border and claimed allegiance to the Islamic State group.

Larossi Abballa, 25, knifed to death Officer Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and police administrator Jessica Schneider in their home on Monday.

Abballa was killed by a police intervention unit shortly after Monday’s stabbings, which shocked a country that’s been in a state of emergency since November’s jihadist attacks killed 130 people.

It was unclear whether Abballa had crossed paths in the past with either of his victims. But Abballa had crosses paths with the law, and Commander Salvaing had worked in the Yvelines Department, where both men lived, since 2001. He was appointed No.2 in 2014 at the police station in Mureaux. Abballa and his family lived in the next town over and at one point Abballa apparently had a food delivery business in Mureaux.

Abballa was among eight people convicted in 2013 for his role in a jihadi network sending recruits to the lawless border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sentenced to three years in prison, with six months suspended, he was freed immediately because under French law time in detention during an investigation counts toward a prison term, Molins said.