Paris Arms Dealing Arrest As Funerals Held

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Belgian authorities have arrested a man suspected of supplying the gunmen who killed 17 people in Paris, as funerals for the victims of the attacks continued.

Police in Charleroi are holding the man on suspicion of arms dealing after he handed himself in to police in the city on Tuesday.

He told officers he had been in touch with Amedy Coulibaly, the militant who took hostages in a Jewish supermarket in the French capital and was later killed by security forces.

According to the reports, the man said he had conned Coulibaly in a car sale.

But police later found evidence the pair were negotiating the sale of bullets for a 7.62mm caliber firearm - the type needed for the Tokarev pistol Coulibaly used in his attack on the supermarket in Paris that left four hostages dead.

A spokesman for Belgium's federal prosecution said: "The man is being held by the judge in Charleroi on suspicion of arms dealing.

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Gallery: Funerals For Charlie Hebdo Victims

The coffin of Franck Brinsolaro, the police bodyguard killed while protecting Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier

Mr Brinsolaro was one of the 12 victims killed during the attack on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris

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Mr Brinsolaro's funeral was held at the Sainte-Croix Church in the northwestern French town of Bernay

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Police colleagues attended the service

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Mr Brinsolaro's relatives. Continue through for more images

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"Further investigations will have to show whether there is a link with the events in Paris."

Meanwhile, Malian man Lassana Bathily, who helped protect hostages in the kosher supermarket, has been given French nationality after his actions were widely praised.

It came as more funerals were held for employees of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, who were killed by brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi.

Private family funerals took place for cartoonists Georges Wolinski, 80, and Bernard "Tignous" Verlhac, 57, after they were shot dead by the pair.

The funeral for Franck Brinsolaro, one of the policemen killed, was held in Sainte-Croix de Bernay, while Elsa Cayat, the only woman killed in the attacks, was buried in Montparnasse.

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Gallery: Faces Of Paris Suspects And Victims

Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, is a suspect in the murder of a Paris policewoman on Thursday. She is on the run after her husband Amedy Coulibaly was killed when armed officers brought his kosher supermarket siege to a violent end

Her husband Amedy Coulibaly, 32

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Meanwhile, Barcelona-based daily newspaper La Vanguardia reported that Coulibaly spent three days in Madrid before last week's Paris attacks, with Spanish police now investigating whether he had a support cell there.

He was reportedly in Madrid between 30 December and 2 January with another person who has not yet been identified.

His partner, Hayat Boumeddiene, is known to have been in the Spanish capital before last week's attacks, but this is the first report that Coulibaly himself had been there for three days.

Turkish authorities said Boumeddiene crossed into Syria on January 8 from Turkey after arriving in Istanbul on a flight from Madrid.

:: The news emerged as security sources said the Algerian army had found the body of French tourist Herve Gourdel, who was beheaded in the country by jihadists in September.

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