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French police detain man over bullet threats to Sarkozy
French detectives detained an unemployed man over threatening letters with bullets sent to President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leading politicians, a police source said.
French detectives detained an unemployed man over threatening letters with bullets sent to President Nicolas Sarkozy and other leading politicians, a police source said.
The man, identified only as Thierry J, is a 51-year-old member of a gun club in the town of Herepian in southern France, the source said. He is expected to be transferred soon to an anti-terrorist division in Paris.
DNA tests on four of the letters received by Sarkozy and other government members linked the threats to the suspect, the source said.
The suspect, who has a disabled person's card, gave a DNA sample when he was interviewed as a witness last week.
Herepian's mayor Pierre Bernard described the suspect, who was detained yesterday, to AFP as "a frail person who didn't work and who railed a lot."
The letters were sent in the name of a group which named itself Cell 34.
In a search of the man's house carried out yesterday, investigators found documents which indicated he was a member of Cell 34 and envelopes similar to those used for the threatening letters, a police source said.
Sarkozy summoned top law enforcement officers earlier this month to tell them to accelerate their investigation.
