(AFP) One of France’s most wanted jihadists, considered a potential source of valuable information by Western intelligence agencies, is set to return to prison Thursday following seven years on the run.
Peter Cherif, 36, was close to the brothers who massacred staff members of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in 2015. He later became a high-ranking member of Al-Qaeda in Yemen.
French authorities have been seeking him since he disappeared in 2011 on the final day of his trial in Paris for fighting in Iraq alongside Al-Qaeda in 2004.
Cherif, who was sentenced to five years in prison in the trial, was arrested on December 16 in Djibouti after arriving from Yemen carrying fake ID documents, according to the presidency of the Horn of Africa country.
