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Detained Moroccan, Algerian accused of Paris attacks link

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AFP Vienna
Last Updated : Sep 08 2016 | 9:42 PM IST
Austria's state prosecutor said today it had charged a Moroccan and an Algerian with intent to take part in the November 13 Paris attacks which left 130 people dead.
The prosecutor's office in the western city of Salzburg said the unnamed pair, aged 26 and 40, were presumed accomplices of the Islamic State (IS) cell behind the coordinated killings.
He added the men were arrested at a refugee centre in Salzburg near the German border on December 18 over suspected membership of IS and have been charged with "participation in a terrorist organisation, IS."
The pair are thought to have provided logistical assistance and "information on establishing contacts" to two other suspected members of the Paris cell, 29-year-old Algerian Adel Haddadi and Mohamad Usman, a 35-year-old Pakistani.
The latter pair were arrested at the same refugee centre on December 10 and extradited to France in July.
Investigators believe Haddadi and Usman travelled to the Greek island of Leros on October 3 on the same boat full of refugees with two men who took part in the November 13 attacks.

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Those two, thought to be Iraqis, blew themselves up outside the Stade de France, one of a series of assaults by around 10 people in the French capital.
Haddadi and Usman were held up, detained by Greek authorities for 25 days because they had falsified Syrian passports.
Once let go, they followed the main migrant trail and eventually made it to Austria some days after the Paris attacks.
Another man, Moroccan Abid Tabaouni, arrested in Belgium in July and believed linked to Haddadi and Usman -- allegedly refugee centre roommates -- was extradited to Austria last month.

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First Published: Sep 08 2016 | 9:42 PM IST

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