Update 12:50  Lausanne, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – EPFL, Lausanne’s Polytechnic institute, said Monday morning 12 October that it has blocked all computer access to an area where a possible terrorist suspect has been working, but it cannot yet confirm that the person under suspicion is indeed the person arrested 8 October in France. If so, he has been giving courses once a week at the university although he has recently been off work on sick leave. Britain’s Telegraph reported late Sunday night 11 October that the unnamed man arrested last Thursday south of Lyons, France on terrorism charges was working on projects at both Cern and EPFL. EPFL has not been given a name by French police. The university and Swiss Federal Police say they are ready to help French police, but no official requests have been made.

The Telegraph reports that the man is a Frenchman of Algerian descent, although earlier news stories in the UK said he is Algerian, and it also notes that “Four years ago the physicist worked at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot, Oxfordshire, where he was carrying out research into nuclear physics. It is understood that MI5 and the Metropolitan Police have been in contact with the French secret service, in an attempt to establish if there are British links to the suspected activities.” The Telegraph cites unnamed sources for its information, including a colleague of the man at Cern.

Background story, GenevaLunch

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