France charges three over supermarket terror attack

Three people have been charged in France on Saturday over an Islamic terrorist’s shooting rampage and supermarket hostage-taking earlier this year.

French regional media reported that the three are suspected of providing help to assailant Redouane Lakdim before his March attack in Carcassonne and the nearby town of Trebes. Four people were killed, including a police officer who traded himself for a hostage.

A judicial official said Saturday that the three were charged with criminal association with terrorists, and one was also accused of possessing arms in connection with a terrorist enterprise.

They were among six people arrested in raids this week. The other three were released. It was unclear why the arrests occurred so long after the attack.

In March, three people were killed in a shooting spree and hostage siege in southern France when Lakdim carried out three separate attacks in the medieval town of Carcassonne and nearby Trebes.

The four-hour drama began when Lakdim hijacked a car near the town of Carcassonne, killing one person inside and wounding another. He then went to a supermarket in Trebes, shooting and killing two people in the market and taking hostages. He shouted “Allahu akbar!” — the Arabic phrase for “God is great” — and said he was a “soldier of the Islamic State.”

Special police units converged on the scene, and Lieutenant-Colonel Arnaud Beltrame was among a group of officers who rushed inside the supermarket. He offered to take the place of a woman being held as a final hostage by Lakdim.

Unbeknownst to Lakdim, Beltrame left his cellphone on so police outside could hear what was happening in the store. They stormed the building when they heard gunshots, officials said. Beltrame was fatally wounded.

French President Emmanuel Macron had attended Beltrame’s funeral and said the officer had “died a hero” who deserved “the respect and admiration of the whole nation.”