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TERRORISM

Fake Paris attacks victim arrested for compensation claim

French police on Tuesday arrested a woman who claimed 25,000 euros in compensation after posing as a victim of the 2015 Paris terror attacks.

Fake Paris attacks victim arrested for compensation claim
Photo: AFP
The 48-year-old from Val-de-Marne in the southern Paris suburbs even held a paid job at a charity for victims of the gun and bomb attacks in which Islamic State jihadists murdered 130 people.
   
The woman, who claimed to be at the Bataclan music venue where the attackers killed 90 concert goers, had already been found guilty of fraud on three different occasions.
   
She has admitted the latest scam and will appear in court on Wednesday, prosecutors said, adding she accepted a total of 25,000 euros ($31,000) in compensation.
   
The FGTI state compensation fund for terror victims confirmed the payment, adding it intends to take the woman to court.
   
She had also been working for victims' group Life For Paris as a paid staff member since last March after first volunteering.
   
The group's chief Arthur Denouveaux said the woman's name had been on prosecutors' official list of victims, and that it was Life For Paris that realised something was wrong.
   
“It was Life For Paris that did the checks that the state should have done,” he told AFP.
   
She is not the first person to be caught impersonating a victim of the carnage at the national stadium and Paris nightspots on November 13, 2015, France's worst attacks since World War II.
   
Two people have been found guilty of fraud and another 11 of attempting to swindle the FGTI out of compensation, according to the fund.
   
   
He had described in vivid detail to the media how he escaped death when a pregnant woman “took the bullets meant for me” — only for the story to be exposed as a lie.
   
He too had sought compensation from the government fund.
   
But police noticed several discrepancies in his story, including the fact that no pregnant woman was killed in the attack.
   
Mobile phone data later revealed he was 30 kilometres (20 miles) from the Bataclan on the night in question.

TERRORISM

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

Police in Milan said on Thursday they had arrested a 37-year-old Algerian man in the subway, later discovering he was wanted for alleged ties to Islamic State.

Italian police arrest Algerian wanted for alleged IS ties

When stopped by police officers for a routine check, the man became “particularly aggressive”, said police in Milan, who added the arrest took place “in recent days”.

He was “repeatedly shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ while attempting to grab from his backpack an object that turned out to be a knife with a blade more than 12cm (nearly five inches) long,” they said in a statement.

The man was later found to be wanted by authorities in Algeria, suspected since 2015 of belonging to “Islamic State militias and employed in the Syrian-Iraqi theatre of war,” police said.

Police said the suspect was unknown to Italian authorities.

The man is currently in Milan’s San Vittore prison and awaiting extradition, they added.

Jihadist group IS proclaimed a “caliphate” in 2014 across swathes of Syria and Iraq, launching a reign of terror that continues with hit-and-run attacks and ambushes.

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