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French police arrest 11 over Sarkozy death threats

(Agencies)
Updated: 2009-09-04 03:17

PARIS: French police have arrested 11 people and questioned seven others over death threats and bullets sent to President Nicolas Sarkozy and other politicians, a judicial source said on Thursday.

The 11 are shopkeepers, former soldiers and members of a shooting club who all live in villages near Montpellier in southwestern France.

A first batch of brown envelopes containing 9mm cartridges and letters with threats like "You are all dead men walking" was sent to Sarkozy, two ministers, the mayor of Bordeaux and other centre-right politicians in March.

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Since then, similar letters have sporadically appeared in mail rooms at politicians' offices. The latest, meant for Sarkozy, was intercepted by postal services in Montpellier in August.

The letters were signed by an unknown group calling itself "Fighters from Cell 34".

The judicial source said one of the 11 people in detention was a well-known local political activist who had campaigned against plans to erect wind turbines near a small town. The mayor of the town was one of those who received letters.

But a police source said searches at the suspects' homes had not immediately yielded convincing evidence.

Police had arrested a man in March on suspicion of sending the letters after he was denounced by his wife. The man was briefly detained and released without charge.