Attack of the Paris police headquarters: five arrests in the entourage of the killer

Five people from the entourage of the author of the massacre at the Paris Prefecture were arrested Monday morning in the morning in Val-d'Oise, north of Paris, told AFP judicial sources and close of the investigation, confirming RTL's information.

These arrests and searches took place in Gonesse, Sarcelles and Le Thillay, according to a source close to the investigation, a dozen days after the attack on October 3 at the police headquarters where Mickaël Harpon killed four colleagues before to be shot.

An imam stuck S (as State Security), who officiated in a Gonesse's prayer room frequented by the killer, is among those arrested, according to another source close to the investigation.

On Friday, the mayor of the city announced that the Muslim association that employed him had decided to end his contract and to put it aside immediately.

"Salafist Islamist" movement

Mickaël Harpon, who lived in Gonesse, had been converting to Islam for about ten years and was dating members of the "Islamist Salafist" movement, the antiterrorist prosecutor said a few days after the attack.

The investigation continues to try to understand if the attack is the fact of a lone madness on the background of autoradicalisation or if Mickaël Harpon has benefited from accomplices or inspiring.

Computer scientist employed since 2003 at the police headquarters, Mickaël Harpon was responsible for maintenance at the Directorate of Intelligence (DRPP).

According to an internal report of his service after the attack, this administrative agent had justified in 2015 with some of his colleagues the Charlie Hebdo attack without being the subject of a "formal" report.

Crisis in the night before the attack

The attack, which corresponds to the Islamic State group's recurring slogans to attack security forces, has not been claimed.

Without claiming paternity, ISIS reported the attack on Thursday in its weekly propaganda letter.

The wife of Mickaël Harpon, placed in police custody on the day of the events, was released without prosecution.

The 38-year-old woman, suffering like her husband's deafness, assured the investigators that she had never heard of her husband's plans. She described the crisis that had shaken her the night before the attack and whose neighbors, who heard her repeatedly shout "Allah Akbar", were the witnesses.

With AFP