An investigation was opened Monday against a 36-year-old Algerian suspected of having participated in the manufacture of false papers on behalf of the perpetrators of the November 13 attacks in Paris.

He is a suspected member of a cell of the Islamic State (IS) group which operates in France and Belgium. 

A procedure for "participation in a terrorist organization" was opened in Italy against a 36-year-old Algerian suspected of having provided "false papers" to the perpetrators of the attacks of November 13, 2015 in France, announced Monday the Italian police.

The suspect, identified by the daily

La Repubblica

as Athmane Touami, is an alleged member of a cell of the Islamic State (IS) group operating in France and Belgium, linked to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, coordinator of the Thalys attack and the terrorist attacks in November 13, and Khalid Zerkani, one of the leaders of the jihadist nebula in Belgium.

A "direct activity of support" to the terrorists of November 13

"The investigations revealed - thanks to broad international cooperation - the proximity of the suspect to radical circles of jihadist inspiration," said police in Bari, in the south of the country, in a statement.

The investigation also established "his direct activity of supporting the perpetrators of the terrorist attacks on the Bataclan, the Stade de France and the armed attacks (...) that occurred in Paris on November 13, 2015, to which he provided false papers", he was clarified.

The Franco-Belgian cell had links in Syria and other North African countries.

Touami would have remained in operational contact with his cell through his brothers and his accomplices, including a certain "Fufo" or "Fofa Marsial", a man linked to Ahmed Sami Ben.

With the help of his brothers, he allegedly provided his accomplices with false documents and support for the group's terrorist activities.

Responsibility for the Charlie Hebdo attacks

His name, as well as those of his brothers Medhi and Lyes, also appears in reports on the activities of Amedy Coulibaly and Chérif Kouachi, authors - with Saïd Kouachi - of the January 2015 attacks against the satirical newspaper

Charlie Hebdo

, police officers and from a kosher grocery store that had killed 17 people.

Athmane Touami was arrested in the Paris-Milan train on July 17, 2015 with Fatah Mechkarini, according to elements of the French investigation.

They were in possession of false Belgian identity cards, from the network known as "Catalog" which had provided all the false papers to the perpetrators of the attacks of November 13, claimed by IS and which left 130 dead in Paris and in the region. neighboring locality of Saint-Denis.

Athmane Touami and Fatah Mechkarini are suspected of having met in Paris the day before, July 16, Mohamed Abrini, "the man in the hat" who gave up blowing himself up at Brussels airport in 2016, according to the same sources. .

Asked about this possible meeting in July 2019 by a Parisian anti-terrorism judge, Abrini had asserted his right to silence but France had transmitted the elements to Italy.

False Belgian papers "all from the same manufacture"

The man accused of being one of the linchpins in the manufacture of false papers for the jihadist cell is one of the 20 people who are to be tried in France from September.

This is Farid Kharkhach, a Belgian thirty-something born in Morocco, detained in France.

The French judges established that "almost all of the perpetrators (of the attacks of November 13, ed) had a total of 14 false Belgian identity documents, all from the same manufacture".

These false papers were found to be decisive, allowing them "to prepare for the attacks and in particular to rent the conspiratorial apartments, to travel to Europe to form the terrorist cell, to withdraw money".

Some had been made in a forgers workshop discovered in the Brussels agglomeration during another investigation in October 2015, a month before the Parisian attacks.

In this case, which subsequently led them to Farid Kharkhach, the investigators seized computer files containing several false identities used by members of the Franco-Belgian cell, including Salah Abdeslam, the only surviving member of the commandos. from 13-November.

Athmane Touami, alias Tomi Mahraz, has been imprisoned since May 2019 for holding false documents while he was staying in a reception center for migrants in Bari.

He was due out of prison on June 19.