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Madrid: Spanish police have arrested a French man who allegedly supplied the arms used by Islamist militant Amedy Coulibaly to kill four people at a kosher supermarket in Paris in January 2015, Spain's interior ministry says.
Antoine Denive, a 27-year-old from Sainte Catherine in France, was arrested on Tuesday in Rincon de la Victoria, a town close to Malaga on Spain's southern coast, in a joint operation with French police, the ministry said in a statement.
An explosion at the kosher supermarket during the siege. Photo: BFMTV
Coulibaly stormed the supermarket two days after two other gunmen shot 12 people at and near the offices of the Charlie Hebdo newspaper in Paris. He killed four Jewish people before being shot dead by police. He was also suspected of killing a French policewoman in a separate attack a day earlier.
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Coulibaly reportedly made phone calls to a friend during the siege, urging them to carry out further attacks.
Before the attack, Coulibably spent time in Spain, Spain's High Court said last year.
French police arrive at the scene in January 2015. Photo: Getty Images
Denive fled France several weeks after the attack in Paris, the statement said, and made a new base for himself in Malaga, where he continued his illegal arms dealing using false documents. The ministry did not say if Denive was suspected of belonging to an Islamist militant group.
Spain's High Court said on Wednesday Denive had denied selling arms to Coulibaly but said he was willing to be extradited to France. The court would send Denive to be tried in France unless there was another case against him in Spain, El Pais newspaper reported.
Reuters
Thousands gathered in Paris for a solidarity march in the wake of the attacks. Photo: Getty Images