France’s most-wanted woman visited mosques in Malaysia, says paper

A screenshot of a woman said to be Hayat Boumeddiene, France’s most-wanted woman in connection with the Charlie Hebdo attack, in Istanbul airport in January. – Reuters pic, February 3, 2015.

Hayat Boumeddiene, France’s most-wanted woman in connection with the Charlie Hebdo attack, had visited mosques in Malaysia, The Washington Post reported yesterday.

Boumeddiene left Paris on January 2, reportedly bound for a part of Syria controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), a few days before her husband, Amédy Coulibaly, killed a policewoman in Paris.

On January 7, two gunmen stormed into Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris and killed 12 people, most of them journalists and cartoonists, over what they said were the cartoon's satirical portrayals of Prophet Muhammad.

The attack culminated in twin siege dramas that left 17 people dead.

Boumeddiene, 26, has now become a key target for investigators who claim she had detailed knowledge of the three days of violence that gripped France.

Coulibaly, 32, was a close of associate of brothers Cherif and Said Kouchai – architects of the Charlie Hebdo massacre – killed four of the 17 hostages at a Jewish supermarket before he was shot dead by French security forces.

His partner, Boumeddiene, now joins a number of women Isis supporters in the Middle East. UK paper, The Daily Mail, said the two had visited Malaysia for a holiday with the Post’s reports adding that Boumeddiene had visited mosques in Malaysia. In October 2010, the couple had gone on a pilgrimage in Mecca.

The one-time cashier was reportedly radicalised after meeting Coulibaly.

She told police who had interviewed her as part of their inquiries into Coulibaly’s murky dealings with Islamic extremists that in 2009, she had walked away from a low-paying job as a cashier in Paris.

After marrying Coulibay, Boumedienne “devoted herself” to him, the Daily Mail reported.

Interrogated by police in 2010, Boumeddiene said she was inspired by her husband and the radicals she lived with to “read a lot of books on religion”.

"When I saw the massacre of the innocents in Palestine, in Iraq, in Chechnya, in Afghanistan or anywhere the Americans sent their bombers, all that… well, who are the terrorists?"

She added that when Americans killed innocents, it was the right of men to defend their women and children.

- TMI