Paris attacks on 13 November: two new arrest warrants

This announcement was made by anti-terrorist investigating judges on Monday during a briefing of survivors and relatives of victims of attacks on terraces and the Bataclan Hall in Paris and the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, who killed 130 people in total.

The issuance of these international arrest warrants means that the judges request their hearing, with a view to their indictment.

During this meeting, the judges also said they hoped to complete the investigation in September 2019, told AFP the lawyer of the French association of victims of terrorism (AFVT), Antoine Casubolo Ferro.

Fabien Clain was quickly identified as the voice of the sound message of the EI group broadcast in the aftermath of the attacks perpetrated by three commandos of men returned from Syria. His brother Jean-Michel was identified in the Anasheeds - religious songs - of the recording. Veterans of jihad, they have been in the sights of anti-terrorist services for years and are probably still in Syria, according to investigators.

According to Mr. Casubolo Ferro, the investigating judges decided to issue these arrest warrants after analyzing the claim, which also evoked an attack in the 18th arrondissement of Paris. However, the latter did not take place, which leads the magistrates to think that the Clain brothers were aware of the preparations for the attacks.

"A priori the Clain brothers are not dead and have not been arrested, they are probably somewhere in Syria," said the lawyer, noting that civil parties had wondered how they had left the French territory despite their surveillance by the intelligence services.

At the end of May, a source familiar with the matter told AFP that the Clain brothers were still alive and did not express their desire to return to Turkey or France.

Converted to Islam, Fabien Clain was sentenced to 5 years in prison in 2009 at the trial of a chain of jihadist transport to Iraq, the so-called Artigat sector.

In March, Judge Christophe Teissier, who led this sprawling investigation, refused a request for an act from the Victims Association Life For Paris, which demanded the hearing of the Clain brothers and the issuing of arrest warrants, in view of their possible "leading role" in the preparations for the Paris attacks.

In his response, the judge explained that "investigations" were "in progress" to "allow to determine the precise role that each of them could have," according to a source close to the file.

In all, twelve men are prosecuted in the case heard in Paris and at least five others whose Clain brothers are the subject of an arrest warrant.