Suspect linked to killer of French police couple released

Investigators release a man held briefly Tuesday for his links to the jihadist killer of a police commander and his partner, saying they would not charge him at this stage.

The 41-year-old convicted jihadist had been arrested in Les Mureaux, a town west of Paris, where police carried out six raids looking for associates of Larossi Abballa, shot dead by police after he killed the couple on June 13.

“There are no charges against him at this stage,” the Versailles prosecutor tells AFP, adding: “The investigation continues.”

The man, a Moroccan, was convicted in 2007 and jailed for eight years for his role in bombings claimed by Al-Qaeda that killed 33 people in Casablanca, Morocco, in 2003. He was stripped of his French nationality in a move that was upheld earlier this month.

Police officer Jean-Baptiste Salvaing and civil police employee Jessica Schneider were stabbed to death at their home in Magnanville, also west of the French capital. Abballa, 25, killed Salvaing before taking Schneider hostage and slitting her throat. Her three-year-old son who was in the house was traumatized but unharmed.