Jihadi suspects walk free on landing in France from Turkey

Three suspected French jihadists appear to have walked free on their return to France after being arrested in Turkey and sent here. They include the brother-in-law of Toulouse killer Mohammed Merah.

Paris's Orly airport AFP

On Tuesday afternoon the interior ministry announced that the three men, including the 29-year-old husband of Merah's sister Souad, had been arrested by French police on their arrival at Paris's Orly airport after being sent back from Turkey.

But it later turned out that the men had not landed in Paris at all but were put on a flight to the southern city Marseille where they were, to their apparent surprise, able to walk freely from the airport.

The ministry claimed that the Turkish authorities put them on the flight to Marseille after the pilot of the Paris-bound flight refused to allow them on board.

But it insisted that Paris was not aware of the change until after the men had landed on French soil.

French Defence Ministry Jean-Yves Le Drien blamed an "unfortunate initiative" by Turkey and said a "solution will be found very quicly" on Wednesday morning.

They are Abdelouahed Baghdali, 29, Imad Djebali, 27, and Gael Maurize, 24, according to the i-Télé TV channel.

Baghdali is the husband of Souad Merah, the older sister of Mohamed Merah, who killed seven people in Toulouse and Montauban, southern France, in 2012, before dying himself when police stormed his hide-out.

Djebali, a childhood friend of the Toulouse killer, was sentenced to four years in prison in 2008 for an Iraq-linked jihadi network, while Maurize is a convert to Islam, i-Télé says.

The men, who are believed to have been fighting in Syria since February or March 2013, were taken into custody by the DGSI anti-terror police.

The interior ministry announced in June that Souad Merah had gone to Syria via Spain and Turkey and will be arrested if she returns to France.

France last week passed anti-jihadi legislation, whose main aim was to stop nationals going to join armed Islamist groups in Syria and Iraq.

Mohamed Merah was shot dead by police at his apartment in Toulouse in March 2012 after a killing spree during which he murdered seven people, including three children at a Jewish school in Toulouse.