Six people suspected of complicity in an alleged chemical weapons plot in 2002 have been put under formal judicial investigation by a senior French anti-terrorism judge.
The group included Chellali Benchellali, the imam of a mosque in Lyon in eastern France, where police detained a number of suspects last Tuesday.
The prayer leader, detained with his wife, a son and three other people, were being investigated on suspicion of associating with criminals engaged in a terrorist enterprise.
The detentions were ordered by judges investigating an alleged plot to attack Russian interests in France, including a chemical weapons strike against Moscow's embassy in Paris.
Benchellali's lawyer Jacques Debray said investigators had yet to furnish any concrete evidence to back up accusations that a chemical weapons attack was planned.
