PARIS: French authorities filed terror charges on Friday against two men, including Pakistani national Mohammad Usman, who are suspected to be members of the same militant Islamic State (IS) group cell that massacred 130 people in Paris last November, a judicial source said.

The 35-year-old Pakistani Mohammad Usman and 29-year-old Algerian Adel Haddadi were charged with “criminal conspiracy with terrorists”, the source said of the men turned over earlier Friday by Austrian authorities.

Investigators believe they travelled to the Greek island of Leros on October 3 on the same boat full of refugees as two men who took part in the November 13 attacks.

Those two, thought to be Iraqis, blew themselves up outside the Stade de France stadium, one of a series of brazen assaults by around 10 people around the French capital.

But Haddadi and Usman were held up, detained by Greek authorities for 25 days because they had fake Syrian passports.

Once let go, they followed the main migrant trail and made it to Salzburg in western Austria at the end of November — after the Paris attacks.

Austrian police commandos then arrested them in December at a migrant centre a few hours after French authorities informed them the men could be in the country.

After his arrest, Haddadi told investigators that he wanted to go to France to “carry out a mission,” according to a statement seen by AFP.

A source close to the investigation said that Haddadi “was meant to take part in the Paris killings with his travelling companions”.

After France filed a European arrest warrant, a court in Salzburg approved at the beginning of July the transfer of the two men to France. Prosecutors said on Friday that both have now “left the country”.

Usman is reportedly thought to be a bomb maker for Pakistani militant organisations including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT).

India holds LeT, allegedly linked to Al Qaeda, responsible for attacks in 2008 in Mumbai that killed 166 people.

Usman unsuccessfully appealed against his transfer from Austria, saying he would not get a fair trial in France and that he feared for his safety.

Salzburg prosecutors added Friday that two more men, a Moroccan and an Algerian arrested eight days after the others, remained in custody.

In December prosecutors had said that the men, aged 25 and 40 at the time, were being held “because of indications of close contact” with the two now transferred to France.

Opinion

Editorial

By-election trends
Updated 23 Apr, 2024

By-election trends

Unless the culture of violence and rigging is rooted out, the credibility of the electoral process in Pakistan will continue to remain under a cloud.
Privatising PIA
23 Apr, 2024

Privatising PIA

FINANCE Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb’s reaffirmation that the process of disinvestment of the loss-making national...
Suffering in captivity
23 Apr, 2024

Suffering in captivity

YET another animal — a lioness — is critically ill at the Karachi Zoo. The feline, emaciated and barely able to...
Not without reform
Updated 22 Apr, 2024

Not without reform

The problem with us is that our ruling elite is still trying to find a way around the tough reforms that will hit their privileges.
Raisi’s visit
22 Apr, 2024

Raisi’s visit

IRANIAN President Ebrahim Raisi, who begins his three-day trip to Pakistan today, will be visiting the country ...
Janus-faced
22 Apr, 2024

Janus-faced

THE US has done it again. While officially insisting it is committed to a peaceful resolution to the...