The youngest of three French citizens being sought by police after Wednesday’s Islamist terrorist attack that killed 12 people in the offices satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in Paris turned himself in to the police, an official at the Paris prosecutor's office said.
“Hamyd Mourad handed himself in to police… on Wednesday after seeing his name circulating on social media,” the source said. “He has been arrested and taken into custody,” another source confirmed.
The hooded attackers stormed the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a weekly known for lampooning Islam and other religions, in the most deadly attack on French soil in decades.
French police were still in a huge manhunt for two of the attackers who escaped by car after shooting dead some of France's top cartoonists as well as two police officers.
The two, Cherif and Said Kouachi, respectively 32 and 34, brothers and Paris-born French nationals of Algerian descent — were still at large Wednesday night. Mourad is said to be the brother-in-law of Cherif, according to French media.
French police issued an appeal for witnesses of the attack early Thursday morning and released photos of the brothers. They were described as “armed and dangerous.”
The younger Kouachi had been active between the years 2003 and 2005 in rallies urging French Muslims to join jihadists in Iraq in battle against the US army. In 2008, he was convicted of terrorism charges and sentenced to three years and 18 months suspended sentence.
The suspects’ ID cards were found in an abandoned vehicle near the scene of the attack.