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French Mayor Asks Ministry to Expel Alleged Jihadist From Town

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Brienne-le-Chateau - Sputnik International
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The mayor of the small town of Brienne-le-Chateau to the southeast of Paris, Nicolas Dhuicq, has sent a letter to the country’s Interior Ministry, asking it to expel an alleged jihadist residing there as a national security issue, he told Sputnik on Thursday.

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MOSCOW (Sputnik), Svetlana Alexandrova — Farouk Ben Abbes, who is suspected of having ties with radical groups including Daesh, transferred to a hotel in Brienne-le-Chateau on Wednesday where he is due to remain under house arrest. He has been under police surveillance since the November attacks in Paris and was relocated to the rural part of France from the city of Toulouse amid the growing threat posed by terrorists during the ongoing UEFA Euro-2016 championship being held in France.

"I wrote this letter and I handed it personally to the minister letting him know my main concern over Abbes’ transfer is French national security," Dhuicq said.

In his letter to French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the official stressed that there are a few potential terrorist targets in the vicinity of Brienne-le-Chateau, such as a depot holding 60- to 70 percent of the French army's arsenal located just a few miles away.

"There are also quite a few convicted Islamists who are serving jail sentences in France’s number one high-security jail Clairvaux, which is 20 kilometers away," he noted.

"It is unacceptable, without consulting me in advance … to transfer to a small town of three thousand people a dangerous Islamist from Toulouse where, according to the government, he may pose a threat during the UEFA Euro-2016 championship due to his ‘popularity’," Dhuicq said.

According to the official, local police are already have an overloaded workload and will be unable to supervise Abbes’ house arrest in a local motel and prevent him from fleeing.

"From 06:00 am to 08:00 pm [local time] he can leave the hotel at any time and walk freely around the town," he said.

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"I fear that the guy will take this opportunity and try to flee as he had already attempted to run away in the past and was sentenced to three months in prison. While searching his house after the arrest, police found many assault weapons and flak jackets," Dhuicq said, adding that the town of Brienne-le-Château is conveniently located near to freeways leading directly to Paris and Belgium.

Farouk Ben Abbes, a Belgian national of Tunisian origin, was arrested in 2011 in Egypt after a terror attack on a group of French students in Cairo in February that killed 17-year-old Cécile Vannier. His name appeared on the list of alleged suspects in the 2015 attack on the Bataclan concert hall in France.

Abbes is also suspected of having ties with brothers Jean-Michel and Fabien Clain from Toulouse who are believed to have recorded a voice statement claiming responsibility for the November attacks in Paris on behalf of Daesh.

France has been on high security alert since last November when Daesh terrorists killed 130 people in Paris in a series of gun and bomb attacks.

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