Swiss turn over brother of suspected Marseille killer

A French soldier patrols in front of Marseille train station after a knife attack in early October. The attacker's brother was recently found in Switzerland. Keystone

Switzerland has handed over to the Tunisian authorities the brother of a Tunisian presumed to have killed two people in a knife attack at a French train station on October 1. 

The brother’s wife was also deported, a spokesperson for the Tunisian anti-terrorist unit told the AFP news agency on Thursday. 

The man handed over from Switzerland “was the subject of an international arrest warrant, and was sent back [to Tunisia] on Wednesday”, confirmed the spokesperson. 

The man and woman were arrested on October 8 in the reception centre for asylum seekers in Chiasso, on the Swiss-Italian border.  

The Federal Office of Police (FEDPOL) said at the time that the man was the brother of the alleged knifeman, 29-year old Tunisian Ahmed Hannachi, and was known to foreign police forces for his connection to jihadist terror organisations. 

Ahmed Hannachi was shot dead by a French soldier after killing two young women outside the Marseille station in southern France on October 1. Authorities are investigating the attack as a “probable” terrorist act.