French navy officer, two others, charged with Syria-jihadi network links
A French naval officer and two other men have been charged with membership of a terrorist cell in an ongoing investigation into networks that are believed to be sending Islamist fighters from France to Syria and elsewhere.
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The three men were charged and jailed on Friday after being taken in for questioning on Monday.
The naval officer, a 23-year-old based in the southern French port of Toulon, is the brother
Investigators believe that several of the suspects have set up a network to help would-be jihadis join groups fighting abroad.
Several dozen French citizens are believed to have gone to fight in Syria or to be planning to do so.
of a man who is believed to have gone to Syria to fight the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Investigators suspect him of helping his brother get to Syria or of giving him material help.
The two others, aged 26 and 29 and both known to police for criminal activity, are believed to be in contact with an Islamist group in Torcy, near Paris, and Cannes on the French Riviera.
Eleven other men had already been rounded up since police say they were alerted to the existence of an Islamist cell by a grenade attack on a Jewish grocery store on the outskirts of Paris last September.
On 11 June a man was charged after his wife tipped off the authorities that he had a “plan”, without giving much detail.
Last October the apparent leader of the cell, Jérémie Louis-Sidney, was shot dead by police after he fired on them when they tried to arrest him.
President François Hollande promised to tighten surveillance of possible jihadis after a soldier was stabbed in broad daylight in Paris
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