Brother-in-law of Charlie Hebdo killer detained in Bulgaria

PARIS – The brother-in-law of one of the men who attacked the satirical Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris has been jailed in Bulgaria, and authorities say he is suspected of trying to join extremists in Syria.

Mourad Hamyd was initially suspected of a role in the January 2015 attack on the paper, but his high school classmates launched a successful social media campaign to clear his name, saying he was in class at the time. “I am a student who lives peacefully with his parents,” he said then.

A French official, who wasn’t authorized to speak about the case to the media except on condition of anonymity, said Hamyd had been flagged for ties to Islamic radicals since August 2014.

The Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday that someone close to Hamyd flagged his probable trip to Syria, and he was detained in late July.

“His behaviour was typical for a foreign fighter and that’s how he was identified,” Bulgarian Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova said.

Hamyd’s sister was married to Cherif Kouachi, one of two brothers who carried out the deadly attack at the Charlie Hebdo offices.

Bachvarova also confirmed that a European arrest warrant had been issued, saying that further details would be announced after a court hearing Wednesday.

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Veselin Toshkov contributed from Sofia, Bulgaria.