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CRIME

Exiled Azerbaijani journalist shot and wife murdered near Toulouse

An Azerbaijani journalist forced into exile in France was seriously wounded and his wife was killed on Friday in a gun attack near the southern city of Toulouse, police said.

Published: 30 March 2018 16:30 CEST
Exiled Azerbaijani journalist shot and wife murdered near Toulouse
French police officers stand near the site where Rahim Namazov and his wife were targeted by gunfire. Photo: AFP
Rahim Namazov, a father of three, fled his oil-rich homeland in Central Asia for France in 2010 after suffering death threats and being imprisoned.
   
The 39-year-old is fighting for his life in hospital after suffering serious back injuries while his wife died after being hit in the head during the shooting in front of their home on Friday morning in the town of Colomiers near Toulouse.
 
   
One of their children, a 15-year-old boy, was in their apartment at the time and heard the gunfire, local authorities told AFP, adding that he was being looked after by a local trauma group.
   
Police said that seven bullets were fired in total.
   
Azerbaijan has been ruled by the repressive family of a strongman president Ilham Aliyev since 1993.

CRIME

Teens charged in France over plot to attack Jewish targets: judicial source

French prosecutors have charged a 19-year-old man and a youth in the Paris region with planning a "terrorist" attack on Jewish targets, a judicial source told AFP on Friday.

Published: 22 June 2024 12:47 CEST
Teens charged in France over plot to attack Jewish targets: judicial source

While no details on the pair have been released, French anti-terrorist investigators have expressed increased concern over the young age of some suspects detained in recent months for planning militant attacks.

The 19-year-old has been charged with “terrorist conspiracy” to commit attacks and the “acquisition and possession of arms for a terrorist enterprise,” said the judicial source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

READ ALSO: Anti-Semitism fears stalk Jewish voters’ choice in France

The youth aged under 18 was detained on June 13, the source said.

The pair made contact on social media and were planning a “a violent action notably aiming at Jewish targets,” said the source without giving details on the plot.

Anti-terrorism investigators say a growing number of youths have been held in recent months for preparing attacks.

READ ALSO: French election breakdown: TV debates, polling latest and anti-Semitism

“This is a necessarily worrying phenomenon,” senior anti-terrorist prosecutor Olivier Christen said at an evidentiary hearing on Wednesday.

French politicians have also condemned a growing number of attacks on the country’s Jewish community, the biggest outside Israel and the United States.

Outrage has been expressed over the rape of a 12-year-old Jewish girl in a park in the Paris suburbs last Saturday. Two 13-year-old boys have been charged with rape and making anti-Semitic insults.

Several protest rallies have been held in Paris and other French cities over the case which comes as France prepares for a national election in which the far-right National Rally party is tipped to make major gains. 

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