France issues first charges against 4 in terror attacks

Paris: Four men with ties to one of the gunmen responsible for three days of terror in the Paris region are the first to be charged in connection with the attacks that left 20 people dead, including three attackers, the Paris prosecutor said Wednesday.

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins said that four men were handed preliminary charges overnight of association with terrorism. They are suspected of providing logistical support to Amedy Coulibaly, who shot a policewoman to death on the outskirts of Paris and then killed four hostages at a kosher supermarket. The four were jailed until a further investigation.

The attacks started with the Jan 7 massacre at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Three of the four had criminal records; at least one met Coulibaly in prison, Molins said.

He said that authorities in France are working with other countries to search for other possible accomplices. Molins said investigators are trying to uncover who was responsible for the posthumous video of Coulibaly, which was edited and released days after he and the Charlie Hebdo gunmen Said and Cherif Kouachi were killed by police.

In the video, Coulibaly pledges allegiance to the Islamic State group and details how the attacks were coordinated by the three men.