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Police officers with face masks and submachine guns after the terrorist attack in Paris
Photo: Marie Magnin / imago images / Hans Lucas
After the knife attack in front of the former offices of the French satirical newspaper "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris, the police arrested the brother of the main suspect.
The news agency AFP and the newspaper "Liberation" reported unanimously.
According to the AFP, another man was also taken into police custody.
In front of the former headquarters of the "Charlie Hebdo" editorial office in Paris, an attacker attacked two employees of a TV production company with a cleaver on Friday and seriously injured them.
The alleged perpetrator, an 18-year-old Pakistani man, was caught nearby shortly afterwards.
According to consistent media reports, he confessed the act.
As a motive he named the republication of controversial Mohammed caricatures by "Charlie Hebdo", which he "could not stand".
He therefore assumed that the satirical newspaper, which has been working in a secret location under police protection since the attack in 2015, is still housed in its old office.
The younger brother of the main suspect was arrested in the Val-d'Oise administrative district north of Paris, according to judicial circles.
Six men had already been arrested on Friday evening, including a former roommate of the main suspect.
A total of nine suspects are now in police custody.
Algerians were released
An Algerian who had initially been arrested was released during the night because he had nothing to do with the attack.
According to his own statements, he had observed the crime as an eyewitness and then even followed the attacker.
His lawyer said her client had behaved "heroically" and must therefore be treated as a "hero".
France's Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke of an Islamist terrorist act on Friday evening.
The terrorist network Al-Qaeda had previously threatened an attack because of the republication of controversial Mohammed cartoons by "Charlie Hebdo".
In January 2015, two Islamists murdered twelve people, including some of the most famous cartoonists in France, in an attack on the satirical newspaper.
The trial against possible backers is currently underway in Paris.
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sms / AFP