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More arrests in France

A man said to practice an ultra-orthodox version of Islam has been jailed after a police raid on his home in a village in the Pyrenees region or France.

A judicial police official said Olivier Corel was detained for questioning on Tuesday after the raid on his home by 70 police. The raid on his home in Artigat was part of stepped-up measures under a state of emergency declared in the wake of Nov. 13 attacks in Paris that killed at least 130 people in addition to seven Islamic extremist attackers.

The judicial official said that Corel was jailed for illegal holding of a hunting rifle.

Authorities believe Corel, 69, who is of Syrian origin, lodged Fabien Clain, who is reported to have been the voice on an Islamic State French-language claim of responsibility for the Paris attacks. Clain was convicted in 2009 for involvement in a network sending extremist fighters to Iraq.

Corel is also believed to have figured in the religious life of Frenchman Mohammed Merah, who killed a rabbi, three children at a Jewish school and three paratroopers in southern France in 2012. Referred to in the French press as the "white emir," Corel, who has a full white beard, has been questioned in the past by police. He can be held for up to four days.



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