Charlie Hebdo: Classmates protest innocence of suspect Hamyd Mourad, 18, with school alibi

– Charlie Hebdo: Classmates protest innocence of suspect Hamyd Mourad, 18, with school alibi (Independent, Jan 8, 2015):

The classmates of an 18-year-old suspect in the Paris shooting, that occurred yesterday afternoon at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine, have protested his innocence by saying that he was in class at the time of the incident in which 12 people were murdered.

Hamyd Mourad was reported to have handed himself to the police at around 11pm last night after he saw his name mentioned on the news and his friends and acquaintances have said that he has an alibi, as they claim he was present in the classrooms that day.

Two other suspects, brothers named as Cherif and Said Kouachi aged 32 and 34 respectively, are wanted by police as it is alleged that they are the two gunmen who fled Paris this afternoon.

Police say that Mourad was being held without charge after he went to them after the incident and his peers say that he was in the same classes. It was reported that the young man recently graduated from a school in his home town of Charleville-Mézières.

A teenager who tweeted with the handle @babydroma said that Mourad was in her philosophy class. She said: “Please, he was in [school] all morning, he’s in my class.”

She also added that she wanted to defend the suspect but she claims the two were not close friends and she had only spoken to him around five times.

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