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| Europe |
| Paris airport suspect was ’set up’ |
| 2003-01-10 |
| An airport baggage handler who was arrested in Paris when weapons and explosives were found in his car was the victim of a set-up, police said on Friday. The man, Abderazak Besseghir - a French national of Algerian origin - consistently denied knowing how the arms got into the boot of his car. And I mocked him for it, sorry. Two pistols, five cakes of plastic explosive, two detonators and a safety fuse were discovered in his car at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport at the end of December. But a former Foreign Legion soldier, who said he had seen Mr Besseghir handling the weapons in an airport car park, admitted on Friday that there had been a plot to frame him. And a very good job it was. Looks like somebody in the French police didn't buy it though. It was the result of a long-standing family feud, a BBC correspondent in Paris says. Police now believe Mr Besseghir's claims that his in-laws tried to frame him because they hold him responsible for the death of his wife in a fire three years ago. Mr Besseghir is expected to be released on Friday afternoon. The former soldier and an accomplice are now being held in custody. For a very long time, I hope. Mr Besseghir, 27, had no criminal record and the firm that employed him at the airport said he had given them no cause for suspicion in the three years he had worked there. He had only recently had his security clearance to work in restricted areas of the airport renewed. Fingerprints found on the weapons did not match Mr Besseghir's - though police became more suspicious after tests apparently revealed traces of explosives on the back seat of his car, and in his locker at the airport. It's always those little details that bite you in the ass. Mr Besseghir's wife Louisa died after jumping from a window in a fire at their home in July last year. Though the coroner's verdict was suicide, her family blamed Mr Besseghir, who they said had tried to stop her leaving him. Sorry, Mr. Besseghir. We didn't believe you. My advise now is to sell the book and movie rights for as much as you can. |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #3 I was right. "The prosecutor said former soldier, Marcel Le Hir, admitted that he placed the explosives in Besseghir's car in collusion with another man, Patrick Pouchoulin, who was also being held in custody." Reports say Marcel was working as a security guard at the airport. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-01-10 12:22:44 |
| #2 My guess, the former French Foreign Legion soldier was hired to get and plant these items in the car. No problem getting this stuff if you have the right connections, he would. |
| Posted by: Steve 2003-01-10 11:15:10 |
| #1 O.K., so the in-laws framed the guy. That still leaves the interesting (at least to me) question of where did the "...five cakes of plastic explosives, two detonators, and a safety fuze..." come from? |
| Posted by: Patrick Phillips 2003-01-10 10:45:45 |