Monday, December 24, 2018

After his detention in the African nation early last week, Djibouti has extradited Charlie Hebdo attack suspect Peter Cherif to France. After departing Djibouti on Saturday, French authorities took custody of Cherif, accused of having a hand in planning the 2015 murders, on Sunday.

As well as organisational roles in the murders of twelve people in an assault on the satirical weekly magazine Charlie Hebdo?’s office in Paris, Cherif is also suspected of attacks against United States troops in Iraq. After the Islamic radical arrived at Charles de Gaulle International Airport he was arrested and charged preliminarily with terrorism offences.

Cherif is at present not charged with involvement in the Charlie Hebdo attack. He associated with the brothers behind the killings, and has been named in connection with a violent extremist Islamic cell in Paris. He currently is charged with criminal association with a terrorist enterprise.

Cherif was previously detained in 2004 by US forces in Fallujah, Iraq and held for fourteen months; upon his release he moved on to Yemen and is suspected of joining al-Qaeda forces there. He is originally from France. On Friday French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parly called his capture “very good news because this terrorist played an important role in organising the Charlie Hebdo attack.”

[edit]