(JTA) — French police have charged a third suspect in connection with the slaying of four Jews at a school in Toulouse last year.
Fetah Malki, 30, according to a report by the French TF1 television station, has been charged with supplying Mohammed Merah with the weapons Merah used to murder three children and a rabbi at the Otzar Hatorah school on March 19, 2012.
Malki was arrested May 28 in Toulouse, according to the French news agency AFP. An unnamed source involved in the investigation told the news agency that Malki, who has a criminal record for theft, confessed to supplying the weapons for the terrorist activity.
“He provided at least two weapons, including an Uzi submachine gun,” the source told AFP.
French police have described Merah as a radical Muslim extremist. The school slayings came a few days after Merah gunned down three French soldiers in two drive-by shootings from a scooter near Toulouse. He was shot dead on March 22, 2012 during a standoff with police.
AFP reported that in addition to Malki, French police are holding and charging Mohamed Mounir Meskine, 25, whom they accuse of stealing the scooter along with Merah, and Merah’s brother Abdelkader, 31.
Meskine is charged with grand theft auto and belonging to a terrorist enterprise, AFP reported. He was arrested May 18 and has denied the charges.
Malki is under a formal investigation, which signifies there is “serious or consistent evidence” against a suspect.
Abdelkader Merah, who was arrested after the shootings, is denying charges that he conspired with his younger brother to commit acts of terrorism.
Since the shootings, French police have briefly arrested or detained dozens of individuals they suspected but did not charge of involvement in the shootings.
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