Four alleged kosher supermarket siege accomplices to be charged in Paris

Four men were expected to face charges of providing support for Amedy Coulibaly, who murdered four people in 9 January’s kosher supermarket siege, in a French court on Tuesday. They were among 12 suspected accomplices rounded up on Friday.

Amedy Coulibaly in a video filmed before his killing spree and posted after it Reuters/Social Media via Reuters TV

The four, aged 22, 25, 26 and 28, were to appear before a French judge on Tuesday just over a week after the jihadist attacks in which 17 people were killed.

Three women were freed on Sunday and five people were released overnight Monday.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve on Friday said that most of those detained were known to the police for criminal activity.

Investigators are now seeking to find if Coulibaly and Charlie Hebdo attackers Chérif and Saïd Kouachi had backing from a jihadist cell in Spain and whether Coulibaly bought weapons in Belgium.

Elsewhere on Tuesday:

• German police searched 13 addresses suspected of being used by Islamists, seeking associates of the two men detained for allegedly plotting attacks in Syria;
• Swiss intelligence services detained a Tunisian national suspected of being a member of an Islamist group and “dangerous to internal security” and intend to deport him;
• Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe demanded that the Islamic State group immediately free two Japanese hostages unharmed after the jihadists posted a video threat to kill them.unless a 200-million-dollar ransom; Abe vowed not to give in to “terrorism”.