A former criminal associate of Abdelhakim Dekhar, the suspected shooter of a photographer at a Paris newspaper this week, says the two have had no contact in nearly two decades.
Florence Rey, who was sentenced to prison in 1998 for a "Bonnie and Clyde" style shoot-out with police in Paris in October 1994 that killed three police officers, a taxi driver and her armed lover, said in a statement she has had "no link with Abdelhakim Dekhar since 1994".
Rey was released in 2009 for good behaviour.
Dekhar, who was convicted of buying the shotgun used by Rey and her lover Audry Maupin, was released from prison in 1999, having served most of his four-year sentence in pre-trial detention.
Dekhar is now suspected of being the man who used a shotgun to critically wound a photographer's assistant at the Paris newspaper Liberation last Monday, and who fired shots at a bank headquarters and, three days earlier, threatened staff at a TV station.
After an extensive manhunt, a tip-off led police to Dekhar in a Paris suburban garage where he had taken a medicine overdose in an apparent suicide attempt. His DNA matched samples from the scenes of Monday's attacks.
In her statement, which was verified by her lawyer, Henri Leclerc, Rey said she was surprised that "this sinister person ... has chosen to revert to criminal acts".
She also complained: "Having paid my debt to society, I am surprised that, to illustrate the recent tragic events, my photo was used prominently in the media, with the serious consequences that obviously means for someone trying to resume a normal life."
Rey added that she "regretted the terrible events of October 4, 1994" and "I am surprised that this sinister person hasn't also learnt the lessons to be drawn".
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