Brother-in-Law of Charlie Hebdo Attacker 'Detained while Leaving Bulgaria'

The brother-in-law of Cherif Kouachi, who was one of the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo attack last year, has been arrested and accommodated in Bulgaria, a French newspaper says.

Mourad Hamyd was allegedly detained at the Bulgarian-Turkish border on July 28, while trying to leave Bulgaria and already having crossed onto the Turkish side.

But Turkish border police sent him back, with Bulgaria placing him in an accomodation center.

Bulgarian authorities are yet to comment. 

According to French weekly Le Journal de Dimanche, he intended to join the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria or Iraq.

The January 07 attack on Charlie Hebdo, a satirical weekly, claimed 12 lives in Paris last year and was the first of a number of terrorist attacks in the country over 2015 and 2016.

For a few days Mourad Hamyd, 20, was suspected of being the third person who broke into Charlie Hebdo and opened fire alongside the Kouachi brothers, Saif and Cherif.

However, suspicions dispersed due to his "solid alibi", JDD writes. Hamyd also denied association with the "barbaric crimes", voicing his anger at the involvement of his name and hoping the incident would not impact his life negatively.

His family declared him missing on July 25, 2016.

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