Euro 2016 terror suspect ‘linked to arms supplier in murder of Jews’

Arrested: Ukraine intelligence chiefs said the man was planning 15 separate attacks
Sky News
Peter Allen7 June 2016

Detectives were today examining links between a “terrorist” accused of planning to attack Euro 2016 and a far-right extremist who allegedly supplied weapons used to murder Jews and a police officer in Paris.

Frenchman Gregoire Moutaux, 25, is currently being held in a high security prison in Ukraine, where he was caught with an arsenal of Kalashnikovs, rocket launchers and high explosives.

The “immigrant hating” extremist told detectives he wanted to target mosques, synagogues and public offices while the eyes of the world were on France during the football championships, Ukranian officials have said.

Ukrainian intelligence chiefs have described Moutaux as a terrorist, saying that the far-right nationalist was in touch with extremist groups in his home country.

Now it has emerged that the farm worker, from eastern France, may be linked to Claude Hermant, a 51-year-old currently under investigation for his role in an attack on a kosher supermarket in January 2015.

Euro 2016 terror arrest - in pictures

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Hermant, a former Front National (FN) bodyguard, is said to have provided weapons to Amedy Coulibaly, who murdered four Jews in the food shop during the Charlie Hebdo atrocities.

Coulibaly, who claimed to be working for Islamic State, also murdered an unarmed police traffic officer in Paris.

The case is deeply embarrassing for French police, as Hermant claims he was an informant for gendarmes who allegedly turned a blind eye to his arms trading in exchange for tip-offs.

‘Remilitarised’ guns including four Toukarev handguns said to have been supplied by Hermant were found in the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Vincennes, eastern Paris, which Coulibaly attacked.

Hermant is currently facing an arms trafficking trial, along with a girlfriend who was arrested with him last year, and both are also suspected of helping terrorists.

Hermant comes from the same area of France as Moutaux, and both are said to have been involved with Bloc Indentitaire, an ultra-Right fringe group.

“Their backgrounds are very similar, as are their politics,” said an investigating source. “Links between the two men are being examined in some detail.”

France remains under a State of Emergency following last November’s attack, with thousands of soldiers joining police on the streets.

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