Paris shooting suspect identified as Abdelhakim Dekhar, former prisoner
Suspect in Paris shootings wrote ramblings letters about a 'fascist plot'
The suspect arrested over this week's shootings in Paris was previously jailed for his role in a "Bonnie-and-Clyde" style multiple murder and left rambling letters denouncing conspiracies and media manipulation, French officials said yesterday.
Abdelhakim Dekhar, 48, was arrested on Wednesday after a major manhunt following a shooting at the left-wing newspaper Liberation, that left an assistant photographer seriously hurt, and another at the headquarters of the Societe Generale bank.
His DNA matched samples from the scenes of the attacks, officials said.
"All the evidence today points to his involvement" in the attacks, Interior Minister Manuel Valls said.
A 32-year-old man who housed Dekhar led investigators to him. The two men first met 13 years ago in London, where Dekhar lived for several years, Paris prosecutor Frederic Molins told a news conference.
Dekhar was convicted in 1998 of buying a gun used in an October 1994 shooting attack by student Florence Rey and her lover Audry Maupin, who were compared by investigators at the time to the infamous American outlaws Bonnie and Clyde.
Three policemen, a taxi driver and Maupin himself were killed in a case that captivated France.