Man arrested for alleged attacks on of Le Pen's website

A man, suspected of having regularly attacked the campaign website of French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen, has been arrested by French cyber crime police, officials said.

"We have identified several of these hackers and have sent all the relevant data to the police in the context of a complaint," said Le Pen's campaign manager David Rachline and communication chief Gaetan Bertrand of Le Pen's National Front (FN) party in a statement on Thursday.

"Throughout the presidential campaign, and especially since the beginning of 2017, our campaign site has been the subject of regular and targeted cyber attacks, using different methods well known to hackers," said the statement, indicating that the individual could be "close to extreme left-wing circles".

The prosecutor's office in Nanterre, a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, confirmed that a young man had been arrested this week and that he had "admitted the facts" during his custody, Xinhua news agency reported.

The seized computer is still under further investigation, the prosecutor's office said.

A preliminary inquiry was opened last weekend after the far-right party lodged a complaint about the alleged attacks, according to local newspaper Le Figaro.

--IANS

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