Having entered parliament in 1986, he also became mayor of Sarcelles, a poor dormitory town north of Paris, in 1995.

ECONOMIST: Pragmatic charmer with the purse

The French police raids followed an attack on a kosher grocery in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles on 19 September, in which one person was injured.

BBC: France 'uncovers biggest bomb plot in years'

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins described him as "a delinquent" and said his fingerprints had been found on the remains of a grenade thrown into the kosher grocery store in the Paris suburb of Sarcelles on 19 September.

BBC: French police kill man in wave of anti-terror raids