Paris supermarket suspect Amedy Coulibaly met with Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009

(Image credit: Direction centrale de la Police judiciaire via Getty Images)

last updated 11 January 2015

French media outlets have examined the police reports of Amedy Coulibaly, one of the suspects in Friday's hostage event at a Jewish supermarket. They discovered that he has spent time in prison for armed robbery — and that he met with French then-President Nicolas Sarkozy in 2009.

Coulibaly was first convicted of robbery and went to prison in 2001, The Washington Post reports. In 2005, police suspected he had converted to radical Islam while he was in prison. Also in 2005, Coulibaly met Sharif Kouachi, one of the suspected gunmen in Wednesday's attack on the Charlie Hebdo office, while in prison. He was freed in 2006.

In 2009, Coulibaly met with then-President Sarkozy "as part of an effort to promote youth employment," according to the Post. But 10 months after the meeting, police found 240 rounds of 7.62mm rifle ammunition in Coulibaly's apartment. The Post notes that French police believe he tried to break Smain Ait Ali Belkacem, a militant Islamist, out of prison in 2013. Coulibaly was convicted and sentenced again in 2013, but he was released early.

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