A suspected militant has been deported from Djibouti in North Africa to France in connection with the terrorist shooting at satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo nearly four years ago, the French interior minister said on Sunday.

Christophe Castaner tweeted that Peter Cherif had evaded French justice and that his detention in France was the result of the "efficiency of our [security] services and the international communication that permitted his arrest."  He is thought to have had close contact with brothers Cherif and Said Kouachi, who carried out the Charlie Hebdo attack.

On Friday, French prosecutors filed a request for 14 people to be presented before a jury for their suspected involvement in the attacks in January 2015 that left 17 people dead. Peter Cherif is not among these 14.